Crossing Destinies
by JeromeSankara
Summary: Have you ever wondered just what was behind the shadowed faces of Zero and Ichiru's parents? Follow Sakura, Toga and Kyoko through the story behind the story, on just how the twin hunters' story was really only the beginning.
1. Prologue

Hello! Welcome to my new fanfic and also to my profile :3 I have been writing fanfics for a while now and this is my first one to be published on . I hope you enjoy it and I always appreciate reviews, comments, etc ^^_  
_The story is already underway and I do hope that you can follow Sakura and Kyoko's journey through all the twists and turns :3 I have taken a little bit of creative license so it doesn't line up fact to fact with Vampire Knight hunters but it's for all the more fun :3 Take care and enjoy the fanfic!

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_He was a boy. She was a girl. They met, fell in love, had children, and died. No other words, no names, not even a face to these two people. All we know is about their offspring, the two that would carry on their name. But… What happens when we put a face on the faceless? A name on the nameless? A story behind the storyless?_

_His name was Kyoko. Hers was Sakura. They met, fell in love, had children, and died. But there is much more behind the story than any have been willing to unearth…_

_Until now._

_-Sakura-_

The sandbox's sand squished beneath my feet, oozing out between my toes and sticking to my pinkish skin. The soft giggles of the other children were fading as they rushed to play with their friends, but one remained in the sandbox with me. My gaze flicked up from the sand as I tossed my shoes to the side, and soon I caught sight of the black hair shadowing over the ice blue eyes.

Toga was so shy… He was always so shy around the other kids as I watched his hand pick up a little sand, then let it fall through his fingers. He rarely said a word to anyone else… but me. It was because I shared my lunch that mother made for me on occasions when he would have nothing. He said that his family didn't have money… And that it was because his parents fought constantly.

It was just another day of kindergarten… The spring sun was high above the clouds, warming my body and the light uniform I was wearing. It felt itchy… But Mother told me many times that I had to wear it no matter what, or I would get in trouble. I let out a soft sigh as the sun moved just partially overhead, until I looked back at Toga. Recess was about over… Maybe if I tried one last time…

His hand picked up a little sand again, letting it fall away, before he looked up at me. "…Do you want to play?" I asked him again, the third time during this recess. His face seemed to pale at the thought… and he quickly shook his head no.

Well, even if his answer had been yes, it wouldn't have made a difference as the recess bell soon rang. The collective groans of the other children was easy to hear, and I soon joined the groans. I slid up to my feet, brushed some of the sand from my uniform skirt, and looked back up at Toga. He was still playing with the sand, picking up a stick and drawing soft circles in the dry dirt…

"We're going to be late, Toga…!" I sighed as he refused to move from his spot, as if he had not heard the bell in the first place. We had been late to lunch three times this week already, and I refused to have to give up my pudding cup again just because we didn't have time to eat. So without hesitating for a moment, I rushed over, grabbed Toga and our shoes, and pulled him out of the sandbox. He barely whined… It was strange from his usual complaining when I would have to drag him off to class.

But I pulled him anyway. The guardians of the school were already starting to corral the children in, and others were starting to check the gates. They did this every time before and after they went out to play… One of the kids had started a rumor saying that they were looking for vampires and Level Es, but that was silly… Level Es would never go near a school full of hunters. Plus, it was only a nursery story that the grown-ups would use to scare them, saying that vampires would grab them and take them away if they strayed too close to the fence.

…But it would explain why the grown-ups always looked so serious and so on edge when they checked the fence.

The guardians guided them inside the school with haste, and I looked up to the front of the building, looking again at that symbol that stretched across the front… The hunter's symbol. It looked like a flower… But with deadly thorns intertwined with its petals. It was to show the strength of the hunter… And the beauty of the hunter that was guarded by the array of thorns.

The caretakers quickly proceeded to take them to their classroom. They were the only children in the school… The first generation of the Cross Academy. It was lead by their Headmaster Cross… The vampire with no fangs, they called him. It was a silly thing to call a hunter… Why would a vampire be a hunter, and a vampire be without fangs? So silly…

I looked up at the guardians that were ushering us into the classroom. I recognized some… Some had been ones that were coming to her home. They would talk with Mother, murmur softly to her, but usually it left her crying… The words that they would pass to each other were about Daddy.

Daddy… hadn't returned from his hunting. He left before my first day of kindergarten. He promised to take her to the classroom for the first day, show her around, help her make friends… But he hadn't been home. Now, every night, Mother and I waited for him on the porch for him to return home. Mother promised him that she would wait for however long it would take to return home… And so was I.

The classroom opened up to us in moments as the door swung away, revealing the desks all lined up in a row. Fresh clean papers were resting on their desks, including their lunches that they were all given. Every seat had a lunch bag placed on the desk… Except Toga's. He said his mother never bothered herself with paying for his lunches, which was why the chances of him ever gaining a meal was slim to none.

Meaning that I was sharing my lunch again with him.

"…S-Sakura, you can let go…" the meek voice spoke behind me, making me look back and looked back at the pale blue eyes. A faint blush was crossing his cheeks… I wondered why until my eyes turned down to our hands, still firmly locked together.

I quickly broke the grip without another second, a faint blush coloring my cheeks as well. It felt warm… as warm as the sun. I giggled, even if nervously, and looked back up at Toga. "S-sorry… But I brought a chocolate bar we can share~!" I tried to make it up to him immediately. Toga hated to be touched, even by me. Whether it was shyness or something else, I couldn't decide…

Toga let out a faint sigh of relief and followed me into the colorful classroom. It was just another day of kindergarten… The other children flooded their desks, tearing into their lunch bags and giggling to each other about what their parents had brought for them. The teacher was not yet in the classroom, which was suspicious… But it only meant that it would give them more time to talk and eat before classes would resume again.

I had just pulled myself into my chair, with Toga scooting his chair next to mine to sit next to me, preparing to tear into my lunch bag… when the doors opened.

All thirteen children's heads perked up at the sound, looking up to the door. A familiar figure stepped out… Headmaster Cross. His long blond hair nearly overshadowed the amber eyes, the amber eyes sharp and cold… The coldness nearly chilled me to the bone every time I caught the sight of them, and I soon forced myself to look away. The strange, jagged sword, symbols from the hunter's association patterned onto the blade, remained by his side as it always had whenever I saw Headmaster Cross.

"…Now students. We have an important new addition to our classroom, and I hope you can treat him with respect. …He is an elite."

An elite… My mind swirled back to my mother's warning just before I had started this kindergarten class. Elites… were the most powerful of hunters. Headmaster Cross was an elite… Their blood came from the most powerful branches of hunters, and no one must ever cross them. Underneath the elites were the scattered remains of those branches, known as commoners. This would include every other hunter underneath the prestigious clans. The rest of us were nothing compared to the elite's power…

There were no elites in their school, other than Headmaster Cross. Mother had told me that elites trained under their parents and remained at home for their training and schooling, like how commoners were. But there was one rule that was most important…

Never tangle with an elite.

Don't talk to them, don't question them, don't look at them. If an elite talks to you, do whatever they wish… Because elites were the ones that would control every aspect of the commoner's work, and could easily make a life hell.

"…His name is Kyoko Kiryuu," Headmaster Cross finished as he stepped back from the doorway, and revealed… a child. He… looked the same as me, except he was a boy. There were no bulging muscles, weapons bursting from his body… He was just a… kid. Why was everyone afraid of an elite if they looked the same as everyone else?

The other children, though, seemed to know the stories of the elite, and knew better than to think the same… They seemed to almost cower away and lower their heads. Two men soon came into the room next, but each of them were silent. They guided 'Kyoko' to an empty desk in the back of the classroom… The one directly beside my own.

Toga gasped softly and quickly gripped onto my desk, trying to drag it away from the empty desk. He seemed to be afraid… But there was nothing to be afraid of! "…Toga, stop that! Don't be rude…" I scolded him like my mother would scold me, and he immediately stopped, though he didn't see to be any more at ease than before…

The elite followed the two men closely, never meeting the eyes of the other students, never lifting his head as it stared at the ground. He had a soft mop of white hair, one that cascaded down his face and nearly concealed a pair of dark blue eyes… They stared down, refusing to meet her gaze, even as Kyoko slid into the seat beside me. The men stepped back, turned, and exited the room all the same… But I doubted that it would be the last time that the two men would be guiding the man around, as if he was their prisoner.

Kyoko remained deathly silent, as silent as the rest of the classroom as the children sometimes shifted with unease. But I scanned over him all the same… He looked… Lonely. And hungry…

I looked back to the brown bag that was placed on by bag, still unopened. I carefully peeled back the flaps that contained the food inside. There, I saw the object of my desire… A pudding cup. Chocolate even, my favorite. My little fingers wrapped around the cup and the spoon and looked back up at Kyoko. …I knew that I was going to hate myself for what I wanted to do, but…

"…Would you like some?" I asked the boy, but I quickly saw him stiffen at the sound of my voice… Did I do something wrong already? I felt the frown crease across my face slowly, but I tried again… "…It's chocolate… It's really good…"

Still no answer… Or no answer except the sign of his hands tightening into faint fists, his knuckles turning white under the strain.

Maybe I had to do it by myself for once… I bit back a sigh and leaned slightly out of my chair. Toga hissed something behind me, but I ignored it. The boy was just as hungry as Toga was… He was thin and he wasn't about to admit it, either. There was no reason why I couldn't help him, and there was no reason why I shouldn't, either.

Delicately, I placed the pudding cup on his desk table, and placed the spoon beside it. When he didn't move to take it, I only prodded it closer to him. Finally, the elite hunter moved… His dark blue eyes looked down at the pudding cup, surveying it slightly, before his hand slowly wrapped around the pudding cup and slid it closer to himself.

Success…

A faint smile tugged at my lips as I watched him peel back the lid and pick up the spoon but cautiously. At least he was listening to her… "…We have playtime in a little bit. Can we… play together?" I murmured to him, trying to keep my voice down from the others, especially Toga, to hear me. That was the last thing I needed right now…

The dark blue eyes flashed to my face, scalding into me like hot fire. I couldn't suppress the shiver that pulled down my spine as I looked back… The eyes were… chilled. There was nearly nothing in those eyes but a dark pit of… nothing. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Not even the other hunters or the elites held those eyes…

The eyes stared at me, but he didn't speak… He didn't want to play? Or maybe… "…You know, play… With… toys? Playing house?" The eyes stayed on me for a few moments longer… but eventually they looked back to the pudding cup and Kyoko picked up the spoon. He didn't even know how to play…!

The shock numbed me for a moment. There was a kid who didn't know how to play…? The thought of giving up crossed my mind at that moment, and I was nearly ready to give in… before I spotted something. Kyoko's sleeve was sliding down just slightly as he ate… and revealed a dark blotchy bruise just underneath the skin. He was hurt…?

Curiosity could easily kill the cat as I grasped the edges of my table, careful to try to not make a sound, and shifted closer and closer to try to take a better look… I reached out to gently shift away the sleeve to examine the bruise better and to see just what was wrong with him…

But then the claws flashed and a hiss ripped through the boy beside me. It was as if an animal was released at my touch as he jumped back. It was all a blur to me as pain slashed into my arm and the boy in front of me had darted away and against the wall. His lips were peeled back in a hiss, his claws extended to slash again…

Pure silence clung to the classroom, and I was far too stunned to even screech in pain and fear. But I could feel the blood slowly dripping down from the shallow cuts… Dripping slowly down my skin… Hands grabbed onto my desk and yanked it back to sit back beside him, and I could feel Toga gripping my arm to try to stop the bleeding. But I didn't feel the pain… I felt numb because my eyes couldn't tear away from Kyoko's dark blue eyes…

They were wild… Animalistic…

This was the elite's power that her mother had warned her of.

"Sakura!" I heard the teacher call out my name, but I was still numb… The hunter that was still on edge, his back against the wall, his claws dripping with blood still stared back at me, as if waiting for me to attack again. I tried to move out of my desk to try to go closer to him, to tell him that he didn't need to be afraid of me…

But then my teacher's hand gingerly grabbed my wrist, easing me out of my chair and leading me towards the door. I tried to keep my eyes on that hunter, but as the door slowly tilted its way behind me to close, my teacher spoke again… "…Sakura, this is why you must never approach an elite. They are too strong for the rest of us…"

…too strong.

…And just like any other day of kindergarten, I learned something new. Never look straight into the eyes of an elite again.


	2. Chapter 1

_-Sakura-_

**"…hey, Sakura, wake up.**

…We're going to be late."

The prodding in my side refused to leave me alone even for a moment, even as my body ached for a little peace. I only shoved my head deeper into my pillow as my alarm clock continued to blare at me before the person that was trying to prod me awake kindly shut it off. There was silence before a tired sigh came from the person that stood beside my bed.

But that didn't mean that the person was going to allow me to sleep, either…

The blankets were torn off of my body without a single moment of hesitation, and the tired sigh soon turned into a growl of irritation. The voice was perched right beside my ear, as if to make sure that I couldn't escape the words… **"Sakura, get up now. If we're late for training, then you're the one getting the blow from Kaien-sensei."**

…training…

I realized with a shock that I had forgotten. The first day of training was today.

**_"...Damn it!"_**

My amethyst eyes flashed open as I pushed myself out of my cocoon of blankets and pillows and scrambled to get myself out of bed. How could I have forgotten about today! After thirteen years of school, the constant shuffle of classes, learning the dreary subjects of how blood fueled the vampires, about weapons, combat and defense, today was finally the day that it all paid off…

And Toga was going to be right by my side through it all.

We were the only two students to have pulled ourselves through the school years, the first two graduates of the Cross Academy. The other children had either dropped out, moved away, or… simply fell victim of the ever growing threat of the vampires preying on the hunters children. The vampires were soon beginning to realize that the only way to defeat the hunters was to take down the weakest generation and watch the entire vampire hunter race crumble.

But it wasn't going to happen to me and Toga… As I jumped up from my bed, I looked up at Toga's surprised face. He had grown so much over the years… Those years of teasing him that I was going to stay taller than him seemed to simply bite me in the ass as he now nearly towered over me. His ruffled black hair nearly swept over his ice blue eyes that stared at me in confusion to my sudden excitement. He was only wearing a pair of black pants, while his shirt was tossed on his own bed that sat just across the room. We were roommates, even though it took nearly begging on our knees to make it so… They had been together for too long to be separated now.

**"Don't just stand there, grab your shirt, get ready!"** I yelped at him as I realized that he wasn't quite as prepared as he liked to say that he was. I didn't wait for an answer from him as I bolted to my closet, snatched the first shirt and pants that I could find and rushed to the bathroom that we shared. Sure, it was awkward from time to time for the first week that we moved in… Toga would always complain that I took too long in the shower, and then he would always leave the seat up…

All I hoped was that the quarrels didn't turn into an argument.

Things had changed ever since they had graduated Cross Academy… After countless years of fighting, Toga's parents finally split up the day after his graduation. Apparently they only wished to stay together to help Toga through school, even when the two had already begun the split up through the third grade when his mother and father moved to different sides of town and Toga would spend most of his time being shoved from home to home. It happened often with arranged hunter marriages…

And the marriages happened far too often. It was rare that hunters ever married for love. With the shortness of their life, spanning to maybe thirty to forty years if they were lucky, hunters were always in a rush to pass on their traits and hunter genetics to the next generation. Hunter families will usually pair up their children with mates even while they were as young as six or seven to ensure that the best traits would be passed along. It surprised me that Toga's parents could stay together long enough to even have Toga in the first place…

But even as most of the elder hunters would like to think, Toga and I were not forced to become mates… We were simply friends… …Or at least that was what I kept telling myself.

…My parents, on the other hand, married for love. They dreamed of being together ever since they met on a hunting mission… And they dreamed of having a large family, lots of kids, maybe living to see grandchildren… But that all ended when Father never returned from hunting. Mother still waited for him every night, sitting on the porch, sitting out in the cold… all to wait for her husband to come back like he promised her all those years ago.

I shook the thoughts out of my head. Love had nothing to do with what I was about to do today. Training was going to be touch and it was going to be brutal… If I wasn't focused, well… Not being focused gets you killed. Toga already nearly found that out when a Level E had trapped him ten years ago when he went too close to the fence… If it wasn't for one of the guards spotting the Level E, he could have easily been killed…

I shook that thought away too. No one was dying today. All we were doing was starting our training. They wouldn't force us to fight anyone or put us in danger…

After changing out of my pajamas quickly, putting up my blonde hair in a high ponytail, I rushed right back out of the bathroom. The ponytail always itched… As if it felt wrong. I tried messing with it once or twice before, but it only felt worse…

Toga was already starting to slide on his shirt, pulling it down over his head, just in time to see me messing with my ponytail. He blinked just slightly before he let out a sigh. **"…Come here. You can't hunt if you're just going to play with that all day…"** he grunted, leaving me confused. I always left my ponytail alone when I had to… Why would he be complaining about me 'playing' with it?

But he soon gave up on me walking any closer to let him help and came over himself. He moved himself behind me and gently held my ponytail before gently sliding it down, careful not to tug on my light blond hair. …He was always this gentle with me. Warmth spread through my cheeks as he rested his hand on my shoulder as he focused on my ponytail. My hand stirred by my side, and the thought of resting my hand on his poked its way through my head. The blush colored my cheeks a faint red at the thought, but I tried to hide it… I can't get distracted today, or risk getting thrown out of training on the first day.

Eventually he moved his hand off of my shoulder as he finished with the ponytail. **"…There. Now that'll be more comfortable,"** he murmured, and I could feel his warm breath on my neck… What was wrong with me today…!

I took a step away from him the moment that he released my hair. **"O-okay, thanks…"** I murmured out of faint embarrassment and quickly took my steps to the door. We needed to get going… Toga seemed to hesitate behind me but eventually followed.

The hallway opened up in front of me, and there were still things piled up in boxes for me and Toga to move in. All we did was move in last week… We still hadn't gotten around to all of our things, but I already knew that I probably packed a thousand boxes too much of clothing. We ignored the boxes as much as we could as we stepped around it and rushed down the hall. This building had just been built last year… It would be used for training the students from Cross Academy that graduated and would spend a full year of training. It would be grueling work… But worth it to finally start hunting the vampires they worked so hard to kill.

We rushed our way through the halls as we soon realized that we were going to be late, rushing past the training rooms, the shooting range, the weapons room, before soon coming to Kaien's office. The double doors stood menacingly over us as

Well… This was it. I looked up to Toga as he stood beside me, his blue eyes surveying the door with a growing sense of unease. He seemed to be just as nervous as I was… I watched him swallow down his worry before he looked down to me. **"…Ready?"** he asked me, obviously trying to keep his own voice from shaking before he soon reached out his hand to me…

I stared down at the open hand. Was I really ready for what lied behind that door? I could always just turn and leave… But what would I run to? Failed hunters rarely lasted very long… They were usually the prey to vampires first since they were easy targets. I swallowed down my growing fear as my hand slowly reached out and took Toga's. His fingers curled gently around mind, holding it in his palm. I hesitated… then intertwined my fingers with his.

**"…Ready,"** I murmured, trying to keep my voice as strong as I could to hide my nervousness. I looked back up at his face and saw the smirk greeting me… A soft smile crossed my face at the sign of the smirk and looked to the door. This was it… There was no turning back. Toga took the step forward and grabbed onto the door handle before pulling the heavy doors open…

There greeting me was Kaien Cross. He stood behind his desk, his hands folded behind him, his amber eyes just as cold as they always were… But there was someone else. Standing on the other side of the desk was a man, his back turned to them. He wore a thick sweatshirt, pulled up to cover his head. He was tall… lean yet muscular… Who was he?

At the sound of the door, Kaien looked straight back to them, and didn't give a moment of hesitation before he began to speak. **"Ah, it's about time you both got here…" he muttered before he raised his hand and motioned to the sweatshirted man. "…Meet your training partner,"** he finished and the sweatshirted man seemed to stiffen before turning around in a flash, yanking down his sweatshirt hood to see properly…

White hair.

Dark blue eyes.

That cold, emotionless look…

…Oh no. …It was him.

**"…What are you doing here!?"**


	3. Chapter 2

The dark blue eyes widened the moment that they caught my amethysts… and it all came rushing back to me.

Kyoko had barely lasted a week at school. The guards had forced him away from the others during recess, and I never again tried to approach him. His desk would move farther and farther away from mine, and soon found its way into the corner of the room. The wounds on my arm had only just begun to heal by the time that he was finally pulled out of class by his parents to return back to their teaching, and I had prayed that I would never have to see those dark blue eyes again…

But now he was back, standing in front of me. Those cold, darkened eyes only seemed to have grown colder, as if his heart had finally frozen over. I felt Toga yank on my hand, quickly pulling me behind him to protect me, and for once, I didn't fight back. What was he doing here…! The cold scowl of the elite only pierced deeper into me by Toga's movements, and I forced myself to not look away. I was stronger now than I was back then in kindergarten… But the knowledge that I gained that day refused to leave me.

Never stare straight into the eyes of an elite.

I heard a warning growl already rumbling in Toga's chest as he pushed me farther behind me, and I waited to hear the elite snarl back at him, but he remained in his stunned silence… Probably the same as I was feeling at the moment. But the air crackled with hostility as both of them men waited for the other to make a move…

**"Knock it off, both of you,"** Kaien's sharp command split the tension in the air. I forced myself to look back and saw the amber eyes glaring down at us with faint disgust. **"If you cannot learn to deal with each other, then you are all being dropped,"** he hissed with the coldness that came from being known as the vampire without fangs. His threatening presence had not changed from those days in kindergarten, and I doubted that the hardened hunter would ever change his ways.

**"Why is ****_he_**** here? He's an elite! They belong back at the hunting association!"** Toga growled out at the warrior hunter, but the hardened amber gaze didn't dart away from the young hunter. Toga was brave to dare say those things to Kaien Cross… A lot braver than I was feeling at the moment as I realized that I was still shoved behind his back. I squirmed my way from his grip and stood beside him, but I could already feeling the dark blue eyes scorching through my head.

The vampire without fangs didn't hesitate and instead stepped away from his desk to face the three of us. **"That attitude is exactly why he's here with us. The younger generation has lost their respect for the elites and now their numbers are dwindling. There are now only a few elites left, and nearly all of them reside in the Hunter's Association. But now we are given a chance to use the elite's skills against the growing number of vampires… Which is why he is here."** The amber gaze turned back to the white haired man that stood in the room, and I could almost see the icy gaze from the elite sharpen as he stared back at Kaien Cross.

**"…He is willing to give up the prestigious life of an elite to hunt with the rest of our kind, and I have been given the order to train him like any other student,"** Kaien Cross finished as his sharpened gaze looked back to us. **"It's about time that we begin to bridge the gap between the elites and the commoners, and he is the opportunity we have been seeking."**

In other words… The elites dumped him on us, and now we had to be the ones to take the beating.

**"Now then. Kyoko, this Sakura Suzuki and Toga Yagari. I expect you to treat them with respect and to not underestimate their abilities,"** Kaien continued as he surveyed the group to make sure that order had been regained. Once he was certain that nothing more would come between the three, at least not in front of him, he walked back to his desk and sat himself down in the chair.

I could feel Toga's body stiffen beside me, and his grip on my hand had not loosened from the moment that we had walked into the room. Half of me told me to yank my hand away and approach the elite, most likely to tell him off for barging in on their training, but the other half told me to stay quiet… and that was the half I unfortunately listened to.

I caught the pale blue eyes looking down at me for a few moments as Toga watched for my reaction, but all I did was wait for Kaien's orders. If this was the way it was going to be… then so be it. As long as he didn't get in my way, then I will ignore this dilemma the best that I could. **"Your first day of training will be simple. I will need to evaluate each of your abilities to find just how each of you have grown throughout these years physically. This also means that I will need to examine your physique."** Kaien muttered, his sharp eyes not flicking away for a moment.

Disappointment plunged into my chest as I bit back a groan. All I wished for the first day of training was to get my hand on a weapon, to take and give a few blows and finally earn a few battle scars to call my own… But no, we were doing a damn physical. And the thought of having to be stripped down just to let Kaien Cross see if there were any weaknesses in our bodies nearly made me shiver… I looked up at Toga and saw by the look on his face that he was not thrilled as well, but he was still watching Kyoko with suspicious eyes…

I forced myself to cast my gaze to the elite, and saw that he was already pulling the sweatshirt hood over his head in an attempt to cover himself up, but his body seemed to be stiff… His cobalt eyes stared down at Kaien Cross, and his lips parted to speak… But he soon thought better about it and instead looked away, staring down at the throat while an acid burned in his eyes. Someone wasn't happy… But it didn't seem that any of the three students were going to be happy for a long time.

Kyoko soon shoved his hands deep into his pockets, hiding his skin under the fabric as the sweatshirt hood fell to cover his face from my view. For the few times I had seen him, he always seemed to cover up himself well… And the fact that he had attacked me just when I was trying to look at his arm was another hint. Maybe there was something wrong with him…?

…Good. Then he can get kicked out before we have to deal with him any longer.

**"…C'mon, Toga, let's go to the training hall…"** I muttered to my friend as I tugged on his hand. The pale blue eyes stared down the elite for a few moments longer before he looked back to me and nodded. If there was nothing that we could do about Kyoko, then it was better off that they didn't spend another moment with him… For the sake of her sanity and for Toga's.

**"I will meet you in a few minutes, students. I expect you to be prepared,"** I heard Kaien call to us just as we turned to the door. I decided not to bother to look back… This entire day had been ruined enough as it was, and it was only morning. I tightened my hand around Toga's as he reached the door before me and pushed it open, allowing me to pass through first. The door swung its way closed behind us, closing with a heavy thunk.

**"…Sakura, don't let him get to you,"** Toga murmured as he walked beside me as we retraced our steps towards the training area of the building. I only let out a sigh and moved closer to him, and gently, if not hesitantly, rested my cheek against his shoulder. Our fingers were still interlocked, with Toga being my only anchor to keeping me from running out of this building and back to my mother's home.

My heart sagged in my chest as I let my amethyst eyes closed, dread pouring through my entire body. Our steps echoed in the lonely hallway, and I strained to hear if there would be anyone else following us… But there were no other footsteps. Kyoko wasn't following… Maybe he was quitting right now. Maybe I will never have to deal with the elite again when he flunks out of training for not coming…

…But I knew in my heart that I was hoping for too much. If Kaien Cross was that adamant to having him with us in training, then there was no way of getting around it… I decided that I needed to take this as quietly as I could, but I knew one thing was for sure…

**"…As long as he stays away from me, then he's fine. But he better stay out of my way if he knows what's good for him."**


	4. Chapter 3

My fist pounded deep into the side of the punching bag, repeating blows over and over. I could feel my knuckles screaming for me to stop, but I only pounded harder… This seemed to be the only way to keep my frustrations from boiling over… My fist once again met the heavy bag, forcing the bag to sway on its chain links.

The first week of training had been completely miserable… Kaien had quickly given nearly all of his attention to Kyoko when his strength and skill seemed to outweigh me and Toga combined. He seemed to be too good to have only started training… Far too good. Frustration dug deep inside my body as I gave a few more punches into the bag, sinking my fists deep into the outer cover of the heavy bag.

Only when I started to see the flecks of red that were starting to appear on the bag did I force myself to stop. Both Toga and I have been training like this all week… Pushing ourselves to the point of bleeding, nearly having our bones crack under the strain… Sweat slowly dripped down my brow as I forced myself to step back, even as the still-swinging bag begged for me to continue.

I looked up, and quickly caught the sight of Toga. He was nearly drenched in sweat as he struggled with a large, heavy tire that was on the ground, forcing his hands to grip onto the edges before lifting it up onto its side. Only once he lifted it up did he push it over, rolling it down and making it fall with a heavy thud. Kaien told him to work on upper body strength… Apparently having to roll a 400 pound tire over and over again with nothing but his bare hands was the only way he could do it.

Sweat was glistening off of his shirtless body as he stood over the tire before grabbing just underneath and starting to lift it up again… I could feel his muscles flexing just under the skin, some of them twitching underneath the strain that he was forcing them under, all just to push that heavy tire over once again… My amethyst eyes tightened as I watched him struggle to lift it up, while knowing that this could easily have been the twentieth time that he's had to lift it…

Both of us were going to end up killing ourselves through these workouts that never seemed to end.

The tire eventually fell again with a heavy thud, leaving Toga panting softly, trying desperately to catch his breath, but he wouldn't give himself the chance as he gripped the edges, preparing to lift it again… His body shook with the effort and I could already see that his strength was beginning to fail him. He had already been doing this for hours… There was no need to make him do it any longer.

**"Toga, stop,"** I finally groaned as I abandoned the punching bag and crossed the training room a little wearily to be by his side. Only when I stood beside him, pondering the idea of dragging him off of the tire myself, did he finally release the tire and let it fall flat onto the ground. He looked back at me, his blue eyes slightly dulled from his fatigue, and I knew that he was feeling the same as me…

**"…Stop? And let Kaien-sensei think we're useless compared to him?"** Toga growled softly as the venom laced his voice before he looked back to the heavy tire. He tried to brush a little sweat that was dripping down his face before he allowed himself to sit down on the heap of rubber. I could see his frustration just as plainly as I could feel my own…

The reason? I could hear it in the thin wall that separated our training room from the weapons room, where Kyoko had chosen to send his training hours. We could both hear Kaien's words as he told him to work harder, but we both knew that Kaien's eyes were set on only that student. We were hopeless, but Kyoko was not… We listened as Kaien told Kyoko to punch harder, helping him with his aim, before we heard the snap of the heavy chain that held the punching bag up, then the heavy thud of the bag landing, its days of training now probably ended.

Kyoko was much stronger than either of us had expected…

I stared at the wall a few moments as it turned silent in the other room, signaling that Kyoko's private training with their master was coming to an end. Soon Kaien Cross would be back with them, and only then would he see the blood and the sweat both of us had spilt… But I doubted if he would even give us a second glance.

**"Sakura… If we stop now, he'll drop both of us. And I can't let that happen…"** Toga murmured as he let himself lean back onto the tire, resting his back onto the rubber and probably slicking the rubber with his sweat. His tired blue eyes met mine as I looked back at him, and I could only frown in response… He heaved a heavy sign and let his eyes close, knowing that this might be the only chance of rest he will get before Kaien comes back to work the us to death.

I watched him, but knew there was nothing that I could say that would help. No matter what we did, he would only see Kyoko as his star student… And that was all it was ever going to be. **"…Hey, Sakura. Before we die through training… Mind promising me something?"** Toga suddenly spoke up, his eyes opening and gazing back at my face. The slightest smirk was crossing his sweat-slicked face.

I immediately blinked, confusion immediately stirring inside me. There was a hint of humor in his eyes, but it was dulled by the tiredness that ached his young body… Deciding to humor him, I gave a soft sigh and soon sat down beside him on the tire, looking down at his dull eyes. **"Alright, sure. What?"** I chuckled, my voice slightly rough from my own exhaustion.

The smirk grew faintly on his face before he lifted his hand and gently grasped mine. I could feel his trembling… Toga had been pushing himself hard for the last few days, and he never wanted to quit until I had to drag him out of the room or carry his unconscious body out… All I hoped was that he wouldn't push so hard to where it hurts him.

His eyes gazed back up at me as his thumb ran over the cuts on my knuckles, stroking them gently to try to ease the pain before he eventually started to sit up. **"…Promise me that when we die that you'll wait for me up there? I'd hate to be lonely all the way to the end… And if I go first, I'll wait for you,"** he murmured softly, a gentleness touching his voice… I gazed into his eyes, the pools of pale blue soft as they met mine as he sat himself up to my level.

…I was stunned. Not only by his words, but by the gentleness… Toga was never a soft man. Even when he was younger, he refused help from everyone… except for me. For a moment, I was at a lost for words… But then I realized that no words were needed. The exhaustion wore away from my body as I let my fingers intertwine with his and felt my heart rise in my chest… I let the smile touch my face as I leaned in slightly, and saw him lean in as well, moving closer.

Delicately, while never breaking the gaze, I brushed a stray stand of black hair from his face and tucked it back. I could feel his warm breath on my skin… And I felt his hand touch my cheek, cradling it gently in his palm. My fingers slipped down his cheek before letting them slide into his slightly wet black hair, intertwining my fingers into his thick black locks…

**"…I'll wait forever for you, Toga…"** I let the words slide through my lips, and our faces only leaned in closer to each other. His breath was on my lips… But I wanted more than his breath. I wanted all of him. Every piece of him… My eyes stayed on his for a few moments more before they slowly closed, and I leaned in to press my lips against his, to find that he was just as eager as our lips brushed against the other and quickly closed the distance…

**"What is going on?!"**


	5. Chapter 4

**"What is going on?!"**

The sudden snarl broke the spell both of us were under as I let out a startled yelp. We broke the contact between us immediately, our hands snapping back to where they belonged, but my heart raced in my chest. My gaze flashed back and saw Kaien Cross standing in the doorway, a hardened glare on his face while Kyoko stood behind him, his glare equally as cold.

I would have fallen flat on my back with shock if Toga hadn't grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me up from collapsing down onto the training room floor. He pulled me up to sit down on the tire before he stood up himself, his ice blue eyes flashing. They already lost the gentle softness she had seen moments before, as if it had never existed to begin with…

Kaien Cross didn't hesitate as he stalked into the room, his amber eyes scanning across both of us while Kyoko was following close behind, with the elite still wearing that sweatshirt and sweatpants that he always did while training. It was a wonder that he didn't overheat… But it was Kaien Cross whose temper seemed to be overheating at the moment.

**"I didn't think that I would have to set rules for this kind of contact…"** he hissed at us, and I nearly shrank back at the harshness in his voice. First he scolded them when they weren't close enough for training… And now he was going to snap at them for being too close? But he didn't slow down as he walked over before he reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me up to my feet roughly. My arm was already aching from training, and I felt the pain flare up in my sore limb, but I managed to bite back my yelp. The last thing I need to do is show that I was in pain right before their Sensei scolded them…

He yanked me up to my feet and pulled me back and away from Toga, before he let me go, but it wouldn't mean that Kaien Cross was done with me… **"This is simply a social gathering for you both, isn't it? A place where both of you can relax with each other and play around?"** The murderous amber eyes dug straight into me, and I could almost feel my courage melting down into my feet and I soon lost my tongue to talk back. The eyes tightened before they scorched back at Toga, a deep malice in the elder hunter.

**"I would assume that both of you would know better, but apparently you would rather be controlled by hormones than by common sense!"** he snarled back at both of us. The deep burning rage in his voice nearly made me step back another step before that glare sank back at me.

**"…Hunters die every day because of idiotic actions like this. They allow themselves to fall into any emotion they wished before it leads to their death when their guards are down,"** the growl sank down into a low pitch but did not lose any of its edge. But then the glare looked back into Toga, and I could see my friend nearly shrink back underneath the dark gaze, yet he forced himself to meet the cold amber eyes. Then, Kaien started to step towards him, and hissed again. **"If you dare touch her again like that, Yagari, you will be expelled. This is not a time for seeking out a mate and to let your emotions get in the way."**

…Expelled?

I felt my heart drop into the pit of my stomach, and I felt a sickness rise up my throat like bile. Toga stiffened under the glare and tried to hold it before he was forced to look away and give a slight dip of his head. But soon, anger welled up inside me… It wasn't his fault. He shouldn't be punished and they did nothing wrong! I found the strength in my body to force myself to move and rushed to my friends side. I forced myself in between my Sensei and my friend and glared defiantly up at Kaien Cross.

**"It's not his fault! Blame me, not him, but neither of us did anything wrong!"** I retorted back at the older hunter, but I should have expected the murderous gaze to snap down to me, scorching into my body to burn it away… But I couldn't just stay silent. Even as the amber eyes glared down at me with a mixture of anger and coldness, I forced myself to swallow down my fear and stare straight back.

The unblinking amber eyes remained steady, unafraid, even as the hunter began to speak again. **"…Any distraction is deadly. It can be your fault or it can be Yagari's fault, but it will still kill both of you. You both are too young to defend a mate and your infatuations will only disturb your training. If you cannot focus into training now, then you never will."** His voice was calm but cold… I could sense the anger beginning to fade from the fangless vampire before he looked back up at Toga.

**"…This goes for all of you. If I see anything of this nature happen again, I will not hesitate to throw you out of my training. This is not a time to let your focus slip…" **he murmured, his voice quieting down as if he was certain that his point had been proven. His amber gaze looked to me, then to Toga, before it turned back to Kyoko. I looked as well, and saw that the hunter was simply watching the argument, his vacant dark blue eyes simply watching…

The hunter turned away from us in his silence and instead started to walk towards Kyoko… What, that was it? A scolding and that was all Kaien was going to give us? No training, no anything, just going back to his favorite student as if everything was fine?! Anger surged through my body as I watched him turn away before I spat out without ever realizing just what words I was throwing out, **"So how about you actually train us instead of spending all of your time with him?!"**

**"Sakura!"** Toga hissed softly at me, and I could hear the dread in his voice… But Kaien stopped in his tracks. Silence overtook the hunters as we watched him and soon the unease clutched me in its grasp. …Now what did I do…

Kaien Cross seemed to take his time as he slowly looked back to me, his calm amber eyes looking back at me but there was a spark of emotion… A dark humor. And what soon sent a chill down my spine was the smirk that was crossing his face, stretching and widening, yet lacking any warmth.

**"…You really want me to train you? Alright, fine,"** he purred, a dark chuckle intertwining with his voice as he turned back to look at both me and Toga. The smirk didn't leave his face as he scanned over both of our tired bodies, as if inspecting us to see if we could handle what he was going to give us.

Apparently it wouldn't have mattered if he thought we could take it or not as he soon spoke again. **"Starting from today, all three of you will be training in the same room. All three will experience the same training I have been giving Kyoko, and I will not allow any exception. This also means that all three of you will have to learn how to deal with each other without attempting to rip out each other's throat."**

…I felt my heart fall through my stomach and onto the floor, shattering at his words. My mouth dropped as I stood there, stunned by what he had said, and felt the regret clawing into me. Both of us had been on the verge of collapse as it was, and now it was only going to get worse?!

The color washed out of our faces at the thought. Not only was everything going to get harder… But now we were stuck with Kyoko. My gaze flashed to the hunter, only to see that his mouth was dropped as well, his face turning white. The eyes met mine, and I could tell that neither of us were thrilled at the thought… But soon that expression hardened into a scowl and he looked away just as quickly.

**"B-but…"** I stammered out, mostly because I knew of nothing else to say. What mess had I gotten us into now… The dark chuckle came from the fangless vampire before I felt his hand grab onto my chin, pulling my head up to look back at him, forcing me to meet his eyes.'

**"But nothing. Tomorrow, your training will intensify… Because whether you like it or not, this war against the vampires will quickly become yours, and I will be the only way to prepare you for that war."** The dark humor vanished from his eyes suddenly, leaving only the cold truth in its way. The hand tightened on my chin as he leaned down, forcing me to not be able to look away from those cold amber eyes…

**"…Any questions? …No? Good."** Without giving me a moment to speak, as if I could have forced anything through my lips to begin with, he let go of my face and turned away from us, walking to the door and pushing it open without any hesitation. **"…Kyoko will move into your room tonight to keep an eye on both of you, and I expect no complaints out of either of you. Training is over for the day, but I expect all three of you here at dawn ready to work. Oh, and one last thing…"**

The amber gaze swirled back to me without giving me a moment to process the words that were only crushing my heart further and further, the slightest smirk crossing his face once again, a smirk I knew I would grow to fear… **"…Be sure to have a fresh supply of bandages and ice. All three of you are going to need it."**

And with that, he turned away and walked through the door, letting it close with a click behind him.

An exasperated groan came from behind me as Toga started to walk towards the door after him to head back to the room before he looked back at me. I could see every ounce of the tiredness in his gaze but also pain… Pain for what, I wasn't sure, but he opened his lips to say something to me… But then just shook his head and turned to the door and stepped out in silence.

Misery poured into my body as I watched him go, and I wished that I could follow him and try to make things right, but I soon saw Kyoko turning towards the door. But he threw a glare back at me, the scowl only thickening on his stoned-face before he gave a low, soft hiss, **"…Don't worry. You won't live long enough to deal with training for more than a week."** My body stiffened under his cold threat before he threw the door open, slamming it against the wall with a force that nearly ripped it off of its hinges, before stalking out.

...How could things get any worse…

My head hung down as I watched the door eventually creak its way closed before I eventually followed them out, while wondering just what else could possibly happen to screw this up more…


	6. Chapter 5

Months passed from that day. December snow had already blanketed the world outside of our small world, but even the memories of when I would play in the snow as a small girl would not cheer me up…

Training had only gotten worse. With Kyoko now training with me and Toga, Cross was making sure that each of us suffered for that decision to join the three of us together for training. It was to keep Kyoko from becoming weaker, he said… And it was also to where our potential would be just as high as his. …But I already knew that was a load of crap.

Even after training, things were not the way that I had hoped. The only happiness I had been able to find during the day was when I was alone with Toga, but that had been snatched away when _he_ moved in. Even if Toga and I could spend some time alone, the awkwardness that came from that broken moment alone had already taken over… Between the awkward glances, the broken conversations, and the space that we forced between our bodies, it had only grown miserable.

Was what happened in the training room… a mistake?

I was forced to face the fact that maybe my innocent relationship with Toga… was over. But what was left for us in the future? But for now… Now the day consisted of a simple cycle. Wake up. Train. Sleep. Wake up, train, sleep. Wake up… Train… Sleep. But there was also the thrilling occasional wrapping of the wounds, the fixing of a broken bone…

Unfortunately, today was one of those days.

**"S-shit…!"**

_Thud._

My amethyst eyes widened as I looked away from the weight rack when I had picked up a twenty pound weight, only to nearly drop it on my feet. There, sprawled out on the floor was Toga, and that damn tire had collapsed down onto his chest and the rest of his body. His face was twisted with pain as his hand clawed into the floor to try to pull himself free from the tire, but it was no use. He couldn't get out no matter how hard he struggled, and 400 pounds of rubber was currently crushing his body…

**"T-Toga!"**I screeched as I abandoned my weights without another thought. The boxing match between Kyoko and Kaien ended abruptly at the sound of the thud. I raced to the side of my friend and grabbed onto the edges of the tire, but it barely shifted under my small strength… I heard Toga choke as the tire pressed down against his chest, his arms trembling as he tried to shove the tire from his body but he couldn't muster the strength…

What if we couldn't get it off? What if he suffocates? I could hear Toga's ribs crunching underneath the weight of the tire as I tried to pull it from his body…

**"Get out of the way…"** the harsh yet calm mutter came from behind me, and another pair of hands grabbed onto the tire and started to move it off of him. I looked beside me and saw Kyoko grabbing onto the tire, his face partially hidden underneath the sweatshirt hood. I could see his muscles flex underneath the clothing as little by little, he pulled up the tire and pushed it away, leaving nothing to hold Toga down.

Toga gasped softly as the tire was lifted up from his chest and the rest of his body but I just barely saw the hint of relief on his face before it disappeared into the rest of the pain. His breath was shaky and fast as he tried to catch his breath, but with every breath I could hear the ribs crunching against each other.

**"T-Toga, where does it hurt?"** I pleaded with him as I scanned his body for injuries. It figures that the one day he got hurt was the day where he was wearing sweatpants, easily hiding any sign of a broken bone in his hips or legs. Toga was still struggling to catch his breath when Kyoko knelt down on Toga's other side, his dark eyes looking down to his legs as well.

**"I-I'm fine…"** Toga grunted as he saw the both of us checking him over for injuries, and with him being just as bullheaded as he always was, he already was trying to sit himself up. I only needed to hear the crunch of his ribs as they compacted against each other before I grabbed onto his shoulders and pushed him back down.

**"Don't move, please!"** I begged while Kaien Cross was already approaching us. I heard a soft 'hmph' come from the eldest hunter as he surveyed over us and he soon was standing beside Toga as well… But to my astonishment, Kaien Cross didn't hesitate as he leaned down, grabbed onto Toga's arm, and yanked him up to stand.

Toga's face twisted with agony as he staggered to stand before I heard yet another crunch once he put his weight down on his legs… A broken leg too? **"…As I expected."** Kaien grunted as he gave Toga little to no support for him even as he nearly collapsed as soon as he stood. Kaien was always this heartless when it came to injuries…

He always said that if a person was too injured to stand, then they were too weak to become hunters.

Maybe that was why Toga forced himself to stay on his feet, even as I could see him shivering in pain, trying to keep his weight off of his injured right leg. His foot barely touched the ground as his grip tightened on Kaien's arm before I rushed to help him. There was no way that I was letting Toga stay on his feet any longer. **"Come on, Toga, I'll help you sit down…"** I murmured to him as I took a hold of his arm and moved it around my smaller shoulders.

…Maybe I should have expected Toga to try to lean almost his full weight on me the moment that he got the chance.

I barely managed to keep Toga from dragging us both to the ground and helped him limp as well as I could over to the benches that were sat against the wall. I already knew what would happen next… Once Toga would catch his breath, Kaien would order him to go to the infirmary where a nurse would be waiting, one that was always on call for their usually grave injuries. Unfortunately… That infirmary happened to be on the other side of the building.

Usually Toga would help me or I would help Toga the way to the infirmary, while Kyoko would never seem like he was hurt. Usually it was to make sure that my friend or myself wouldn't collapse in the hallway and suffer a slow, painful death… But thankfully, nothing like that had happened just yet.

I helped Toga down onto the bench with care, making sure that I didn't let his broken leg touch or drag onto the ground. All he gave to show that he was in pain was a soft grunt as he sat down on the bench, but I suspected that the shock to his body might be easing the pain… At least for now. **"D-damn it…"** Toga swore softly as his arm wrapped around his broken chest, his teeth grinding together to hold back any more words or swears.

My heart broke at the sight of his pain as I knelt down in front of him. **"Rest just for a little bit, then I'll take you to the infirmary to get your ribs and leg looked at…"** I murmured to him, and his ice blue eyes eventually looked back to me, raw with pain and also with anger. Toga hated when he got hurt… The reason was not just because of the pain but mostly because of not being able to train. He refused to let his body grow soft…

**"Sakura!"** I heard Kaien Cross bark out my name. I barely held back a groan… It meant that I was going to have to go back to more training and not be able to help Toga get back to the infirmary. That also meant that the young hunter was going to have to drag himself all the way to the infirmary by himself…

**"Sorry, Toga…"** I murmured to my friend as I forced myself to stand back up and rushed back to where my Sensei was waiting for me. He was standing beside Kyoko, and I first suspected that he was going to tell me that he was going to train with Kyoko alone again… But that thought was put to shame as Kaien looked to me, then to Kyoko, and then to Toga on the bench.

That smirk was starting to cross his face again…

**"…Sakura. I had been planning to have hand-to-hand combat training with you and Yagari, but seeing as how Yagari is now unable to fight… You will instead be training with Kyoko."**

_'…Ah damn it.'_

I tried not to flinch at Kaien's words and instead politely dipped my head in acceptance, even as my body screamed at me to run away now. Kyoko… Was bigger than me. And he also was stronger… And the threat that he had spat at me the moment that Kaien decided that we would all train together still ran fresh in my head. This… was going to be interesting.

Kaien Cross let a dark chuckle slide from his lips as he looked at our reactions before he continued. **"No weapons, no objects. Simply both of you together in a fight… And ****_any_**** blow is allowed."** …Now I was even more screwed. Rumor had it that an elite was able to snap the neck of a vampire when they turn three… That meant that Kyoko was more than able to break my head free from my shoulders. My teeth tugged at the inside of my cheek as I tried to bite back a rebuttal.

Judging by the shadowed and darkened look that crossed Kyoko's face, he thankfully didn't seem thrilled with the idea of fighting me either. His blank eyes looked back to me, surveyed me for a few seconds, before looking back to Kaien Cross. **"…Are you sure that you want her to die that quickly?"**

Anger rushed through my body in a heartbeat, banishing the fear that had started to creep into my body. What an ass! He had the nerve to say something like that to Kaien Cross? Even if he was an elite, and even if he was a Kiryuu, that meant nothing! He was still training, the same as me… There was always the chance that our skills could be matched. **"Just shut up and get in the ring…"** I growled softly at him, my amethyst eyes sharpening before I bluntly turned away to walk to the boxing ring set in the center of the training room.

A weight suddenly knocked against my back, dragging me down and shoving me into the ground. A hot breath was against my neck, followed by a soft snarl of words. **_"…Never _****turn your back on your opponent."** I felt the hands grab onto my arms before the weight lifted away… as well as the ground underneath me. Kyoko lifted me up like a ragdoll, holding my arms painfully behind my back, refusing to let me move to hit him.

Panic surged through my head but I refused to let it win. **"L-let me go!"** I snarled at my attacker, trying to kick my feet into his stomach to force him to release me. I felt him flinch just for a moment, but the grip only got harder on my arms before he violently threw me down to the ground. I landed hard on my shoulder, forcing pain to spike through my body. I grit my teeth together to hold back my cry of pain and forced myself to look up.

Kyoko loomed over me, a scowl across his face. **"You give up too easily…"** he muttered as he leaned down to grab onto my shoulder, more than likely to throw me again. I hissed at him and quickly kicked his arm away and staggered to my feet. I tried to take his faint surprise to my advantage as I lunged at him, grabbed his arm and tried to heave him down to the ground…

He didn't even budge.

It was like trying to move a statue of rock and cement. I could feel the color drain from my face as I tried to yank on his arm again, but it was no use. He refused to budge… That is until his hand reached out and grabbed onto my wrist, pulling me back before yanking me up from the ground. I could just see the ceiling of the training room until I realized that the ground was rushing towards my face…

I landed with a hard thud, and my already-hurting shoulder screamed with pain through my veins, but it wouldn't be the end of this… Kyoko lifted me up by my wrist and pulled me up to my feet, probably to throw me down again… I already felt dizzy and disoriented, and I knew that I couldn't take another hit like that again without serious injury. But I also couldn't just plead for mercy and give up…

No. I had to fight. I had to prove to him and Kaien that I wasn't about to become his prey.

I yanked my wrist free from his large hand and turned on him, a new fire rushing into my amethyst eyes. I barely let myself catch the cold dark blue eyes, knowing that I might lose all concentration if I did. Remembering one of Cross's lessons that he had taught us days before, I managed to sweep my leg down to his ankles, hitting just hard enough to unbalance one of his legs before I snapped back.

Already learning from my mistake that Kyoko would just be too solid to move on a front attack, I darted away from Kyoko while still facing him, forcing as much distance between me and the elite as possible without making it seem like I was running away. Now… he had to come to me. He wouldn't let his prey get away…

And I realized how right I was as Kyoko quickly regained his balance and glared up at me with those chilled cobalt eyes. My body was tensed and ready to move at any moment as he ran straight towards me, his hand soon reaching up to grab a hold of my throat… But then I darted to the side, reached out to grab onto his baggy sweatshirt and gripped it as hard as I could. His attire would be his weakness, as well as his size… and I intended to use it as much as I could.

Mustering every ounce of strength, I pulled on the sweatshirt as hard as I could, forcing the elite to a stop before I wrenched him down to the ground. To my surprise, he landed with a harsh thud down onto the training room floor. The training was working… Or at least so far. But I could already feel my energy starting to wear thin, while I knew that Kyoko was only getting warmed up. My body was already aching from the blows that Kyoko had already dealt me, and I could feel the sweat brimming on my brow…

But I wasn't given the chance to catch my breath and restore what was left of my energy as Kyoko came roaring up from the ground. His lips were peeled back in a hiss as he lashed out and his fist pounded against my aching shoulder. The force itself nearly pounded me to the ground, and I was forced to stagger back. As if sensing that I was weakening, the hand grabbed onto my arm, yanked my body into the air, before issuing one final slam…

I felt the wind get knocked out of my smaller body at the blow, and my body fell still. I struggled to suck in another breath… but then my amethyst eyes closed as the breath escaped my lips. Silence echoed the training hall, as if it had stunned Kyoko himself… He must think I was dead. He must have thought that he had killed me. But I knew better… This was maybe my last chance of getting the upper hand on my opponent.

I forced my body completely limp and kept myself from breathing, even as my lungs burned. The silence remained as Kyoko waited to get up before I heard the elite slowly crouch down beside me and touch my chin, tilting it back as if to help allow me to breathe… **"…Sakura."** the soft hiss whispered into my ear, the usually harsh voice surprisingly softened as he tried to stir the life inside me.

**"…Sakura, c'mon."** the hiss came again, a sense of urgency filling the voice this time. I could feel his hand tightening on my chin as he tilted my head farther back before it moved away… My lungs burned as I forced myself to stay perfectly still and not let myself take in another breath, and I didn't know how much longer I would have to keep this up.

But soon I heard Kyoko shuffling slightly beside me as his hands touched my jaw, beginning to part my lips… His warm breath flustered my skin and I could feel the silver hairs touching my cheeks as he leaned his head down farther.

Then I felt the surprisingly soft lips touch mine…

My feet slammed up against his stomach without a single warning to the elite. I could feel his body stiffen in surprise as I kicked him off of me. My eyes flashed open as I sat up and saw his body scrambling on the floor in front of me, shock obvious on his face, but that soon cooled away. This was my only chance…

I got to my feet and lunged at him, grabbing him and forcing him down to the ground. He struggled just once before he let out a soft growl. He wasn't going to let me win that easily… I felt him grab onto my shoulders and the tussle began.

We scrambled across the floor in a whirling ball of flesh as we slammed the other down to the wall or the floor or even into equipment. At points where I thought that I might finally have the upper hand, he would turn on me, flip me over, and try to pin me, only to find that I had already struggled to my feet. But I could feel my strength beginning to drain over time… I wasn't use to such a long, drawn out fight.

It felt like hours had passed from when the fight first began as we kicked and clawed, scratched and punched. My body screamed for me to stop but I refused… Until Kyoko uttered a snarl in my ear. **"E-enough!"** he snarled as he grabbed onto my shoulders and hurled me down to the ground for what felt like the ninth time today.

I could only gasp until I felt his weight pin me down as he grabbed onto my arms to force me down, and his knees dug into my legs so I couldn't kick at him again. I struggled against the grip, knowing that this couldn't be the end but… It was.

My breath was ragged in my chest as I looked up at the elite, and saw the dark blue eyes staring down at me. The sweatshirt hood was pulled back, revealing his white hair damp and slicked with sweat while I could see the drops already sliding down from his brow and his cheeks. The eyes narrowed as they dove straight into my amethyst irises before I realized something with a jolt.

His face… was mere inches away from mine.

I could feel his hot breath on my cheek and neck like a predator about to sink its teeth into its kill. His grip was tight on my arms as he held me down, pinning me, but his skin was hot. A shiver trailed up my spine as Kyoko panted just as hard as I was, winded and possibly exhausted, but his eyes never looked away from mine.

The heat of battle… the intensity of each strike… It all swirled through my head in one large hot pool. It felt… strange. The passion of battle was sweltering, and I didn't know whether I wanted it to stop… Or keep going. To feel his muscular body fighting against mine, to see who will win… To feel that hot breath on my skin… It felt…

…Strange. But good all at the same time.

**"…That's all that I needed to see,"**

Kaien's voice broke the whirl of heat that had surged through my body, and Kyoko hesitated to release me as he broke the gaze. Freed from the trapping gaze, I looked up to see him standing over us, the calm exterior of his face misshapen slightly by pleasure over his students' sparing. Kyoko let out a soft grunt and moved himself off of my body quickly, taking a step back and away from me as if to create space. His gaze didn't look at me for a moment, but instead stared straight ahead.

**"That will be all for today,"** Kaien murmured as he looked from me to Kyoko before abruptly turning away and heading towards the door. Kyoko was soon to follow just behind him, still refusing to look back at me.

I couldn't stop the sigh of relief that slipped from my lips. No more training… Or at least for today. Now I could finally go and get Toga to the infirmary… I looked across the room to where Toga had been sitting… and saw that he was already gone. He left? Maybe he had been in too much pain to wait for the battle to be over… Or maybe it was something else.

The door closed quietly as Kyoko and Kaien left the training hall, but I hesitated. Even as every muscle in my body begged for me to go to my room and rest, I still hesitated…

Why had Kyoko been worried about me when I had faked injury? He even was going to… kiss me.

I shook the thought out of my head as soon as it came. That wasn't a kiss. It was only to force air into me so he could continue to fight or not be punished by Kaien for killing a student. There was nothing more… Or nothing left. But as I forced myself to turn and walk towards the door, I moved my hand and rested it over my chest…

My heart thundered under my hand, pounding faster than any training session had done to me. I felt… excited. But I had never felt so excited about a battle before…

But… Standing in the training room was not going to get me any answers. I bit back a groan as I turned to the clock, and saw that only five minutes had passed since the beginning of the fight, minutes that felt like they stretched on for hours. The realization dragged down the excitement as I rested my hand against the door and pushed it open.

All I could hope for today was to get a nice warm bath and hopefully not turn too bruised in the morning.


	7. Chapter 6

**"Ow…"**

My misery clung to my body as I sat myself down onto my bed, my entire body aching from the fight between me and Kyoko. I could already feel the bruises forming… They were scattered, and I could feel most of them developing into my back and shoulders, where Kyoko had pounded me into the ground relentlessly.

Training sucked…

My amethyst eyes scanned across the dark room to Toga's bed, still empty. He was still in the infirmary… The breaks in his ribs had to each be bound and bound right to prevent any deformation and puncturing his lungs or, even worse, his heart. His leg at least had a clean break… Or at least the nurse said it was until Kaien had forced him to his feet, splintering the bone and nearly piercing the shrapnel through his skin.

All I hoped was that he wasn't in any pain anymore… I heaved a soft sigh before I looked to Kyoko's bed, tucked way into the corner to keep anyone from having to approach his part of the already-cramped room. It was just as empty, but I knew exactly where he was…

He was still taking his damn shower. Kyoko always took his precious time in the shower and refused to be disturbed. Usually it ended up with either him taking up all the hot water or Toga and I becoming too impatient for the wait and would have to sneak into Kaien's bathroom. But it had already been about an hour and Kyoko still wasn't out… I looked to the bathroom, seeing the steam sometimes billowing out underneath the door before I looked at the doorknob.

I still needed to get bandages that were in the bathroom to hold the ice packs in place… If I iced now, then there was less of a chance for the bruises to swell up to levels that would keep me from training as hard as I should. Plus… Kyoko wouldn't pay attention anyway. He would be too busy draining out all the hot water so that I couldn't use it later.

Carefully, as if any sound that I made would somehow alert the elite hunter to my motives, I rose from my bed and crossed the room. I approached the doorknob as quietly as I could, grasped it, and turned it just slightly to make sure he hadn't locked it again…

The satisfactory click soon came to my ears along with sweet relief through my body. I hesitated, listening inside the bathroom, but all I heard was the water running in the shower. Maybe he hadn't heard me… But I knew that I had to move fast if I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't catch me. The last thing I needed was for him to think I was a pervert that wanted to come into the shower with him…

I opened the door as quickly yet quietly as I could, careful not to let the door creak on its hinges. I slid inside the bathroom, only to nearly be blinded by steam… Was he really trying to waste all of the hot water by boiling himself? I knew better than to leave the door open to let the cold air inside and gently closed it behind me. Now… for those bandages. I knew exactly where they were.

In order to save myself from the embarrassment of having two men going through my… feminine items whenever they had an injury, the bandages were right in plain sight in a cabinet right beside the sink, which… was unfortunately right beside the shower. But the shower curtain was hopefully thick enough to where he could not see me and I couldn't see him.

So I pulled together my courage and crossed across the tile floor, careful not to step on some of the slick surface where water had dampened it. I turned right to the cabinet, gripped the handle, and opened it…

_Creeeeeak…_

…The sound spelled my doom. Before I had the chance to try to cover up the sound or stop the door from uttering that fateful noise, it had already made its presence in the bathroom. My heart leapt into my throat as I stiffened. I begged any god that would listen to me that he didn't hear as I searched desperately for the bandages…

…But then the shower turned off.

My body froze as I soon realized that this was one mess I wasn't going to be able to get out of, or not without getting out of that bathroom. Now. I blindly grabbed what I hoped was a roll of bandages, turned around to rush back to the door…

But Kyoko stood in my way.

His hand grabbed onto my wrist, pulling it back and slamming it against the wall above my head. His other gripped my throat, forcing me to not be able to escape and pressed it against the wall as well. His grip was tight and refused to let go… And the cobalt eyes stared straight into my amethysts, with a deadly glint deep in the cold gaze.

**"…What the hell are you doing in here."** he growled lowly with a tone that easily called for no excuses or lies. In my shock, I found myself unable to even collect what I wanted to say… And of course in my shock and surprise, I tried to look away from his eyes and instead caught complete sight of…

…his completely and utterly naked body.

It was only a single glance before Kyoko forced my head back up to stare back into his eyes, but it was all I needed to soak in the details…

He was completely drenched in water, with the water trickling in the lines of his muscles. Steam was drifting off of his skin as if his skin was hot to the touch and the water had no choice but to evaporate. There was absolutely nothing to hide anything on his body, even if I more than wished that there was…

His body looked as if they were sculpted by gods and that also counted for each of the lean yet hard muscles… Warmth flooded into my cheeks in a thick blush at the thought as the sight of his body scorched into my mind. But there was something else. Another reason for such an image to sear into my mind.

Scars.

Scars, cuts, and bruises…

They littered across his entire body. Scars laced his chest, his arms, his stomach, even his neck. The bruises colored his pale skin, some swelling up to painful sizes while others seemed faded as if they were weeks old… But this couldn't have happened just during their training.

Kaien Cross had always been careful to not damage our bodies unless it was completely necessary. Also, Kyoko never was one to be injured… Even during spars, I barely see a hit being landed on him. And even through today, I barely landed a blow that could issue such deep, disgusting, and painful purple bruises hours within receiving them. The cuts that lined his body was also confusing. They never fought with knives or weapons or anything that could leave such a clean, sharp cut…

So… how did they get there?

**"Answer me!"** The harsh growl stole my thoughts from what I had seen on his body as his cobalt eyes claimed complete control of my own to prevent them from drifting back to his body. His lips peeled back, revealing a row of… sharpened teeth. I had never seen them so up close… And now I could see every detail.

It was as if someone had taken a grinder and sawed the teeth into shark-like fangs. Each seemed like they were razor sharp… There were parts of his lips that seemed cut up from sliding too close to the sharpened edges, leaving painful and inflamed cuts in their place.

**"I-I…"** I stammered at first as I forced my gaze up away from his sharpened teeth and up to his eyes. His grip tightened on my neck and wrist as he waited for my answer. I swallowed before forcing a few words out. **"I-I just needed to get some bandages…"** I whimpered, realizing too late that there was a disgusting tone of fear in my voice. He was going to think I was a wimp…!

But… was I really scared? Was I scared of him? I tried to push back my rushing emotions as far as they would go before the grips on my neck and wrist began to loosen. The snarl that had taken over Kyoko's face turned into a faint scowl as he took a step back, letting his lips slide back over his sharpened set of 'fangs'. His hardened eyes narrowed to slits before he looked at my hand that was holding what I hoped were bandages before they narrowed more.

**"…Bandages, huh?"** he scowled at me, venom stinging his words as his arms crossed over his bruised chest. I stiffened with a jolt before I looked at just what I had picked up… Toilet paper. Smooth, Sakura. Now he isn't going to believe you and think you're just a pervert that wanted to see him in the shower.

**"I did! I m-must have just grabbed the wrong ones!"** I stammered and immediately dropped the roll onto the counter in a pathetic effort to prove my innocence. Shame made the already-deep blush in my cheeks deepen as I looked to the door. I already humiliated myself enough… Maybe if I just leave now, he won't say anything else and will only stay farther away from me.

Without waiting to hear his response, I turned and rushed to the door, gripped the handle and tried to make my escape… But Kyoko's hand slammed against the door, slamming it shut before I could even try to get through. **"You're not going anywhere,"** the dangerous growl rumbled beside me as I saw his nails cut into the wood of the door.

Now what?! All I wanted to do was get bandages and leave! I whirled around and pressed my back against the door, my hand still gripping the handle to throw the door open at a moment's notice. But Kyoko wasn't going to allow it… His hand soon pressed against the door on the other side of my body, making sure that I wouldn't be able to escape.

I looked up at my captor and saw the cobalt eyes staring straight back at me as he moved himself closer, his steaming body barely a few inches away from my own… Great, now was he going to rape me?!

**"…I want to make sure that you don't say a word about what you saw,"** he muttered as his cold eyes locked with mine. I could see the corner of his lips twitch as he fought against baring his sharpened teeth again, but his claws tightened into the wood of the door… **"You can't tell Sensei or Yagari. Or anyone else. You're going to forget this ever happened… Understand?"**

I pressed my back as far against the door as I could, trying desperately to create space between us. All I was thinking was what I could do to keep him from attacking me if he truly was intending to harm or even rape me… Kick him, punch him, aim for a bruise… But as my mind swirled in a panic, I blurted out something that could dig my own grave. **"…B-but what if I do tell them? Then what will you do?"**

…Nice. Now get him thinking about just what he could do to you.

Kyoko's eyes tightened as a flash of a dark emotion crossed them before the row of sharpened teeth peeked out from underneath his cut lips. He moved his body closer, to the point that his hot breath was on my skin and he grabbed onto my chin to force me from looking away. My heart thundered in my chest as I felt the heat of his naked body unbearably close to mine, and I didn't know what I wanted to do more…

Punch him and run away screaming rape. Or… well… I didn't even know what I wanted.

The eyes held mine for what felt like an eternity before the low hiss slid from his lips. **"…If you speak a word about this to anyone, I will personally hunt you down and kill you."**

While barely giving me time to process the threat through my head, his hand grabbed onto the handle and pulled the door open, nearly crushing my body against mine before he shoved me out of the steaming bathroom and into the bedroom. And with that, the door slammed closed and locked tightly. It left me shivering, leaving me to wonder just… what just happened.

There was something going on… And Kyoko's threat only made me curious. Was there something very wrong with Kyoko?

Using the only safety I have of having a thick wooden door between us, I hesitated before glancing at the door and spoke. **"…K-Kyoko, is there something wrong? Did you get in a fight? I can help you with your wounds if you need help…!"** I pleaded softly as I rested my shoulder against the door while trying to stop my shivering.

**"I don't need your help,"** was the sharp response, as cold as ice and just as deadly. I flinched at the coldness of the tone and prepared myself to speak and try again…

But then a thought struck me… Why did I care. Kyoko was always an ass to me and Toga, and he never wanted to try to be any better… If there was something wrong with him, he could figure out a way out of it by himself. I didn't need any more things bothering me at the moment…

So with a slight huff, I turned away from the bathroom door and stalked over to my bed. Not only did I have to see his… naked body, but I also wasn't even able to get the bandages I needed to hold the ice in place. I muttered soft curses at myself for my bad luck and soon plopped down on my bed, and looked to the bathroom door…

The shower soon started up again, sending the sound of the spraying water echoing through their small bedroom. …But now every nerve in my body itched to get up and try to help. What was wrong with me? The nervousness in my body only grew stronger as I tore my gaze away from the bathroom and stared at the ground.

What was happening with him…? Was he alright? Was he in pain? Was there someone trying to kill him?

_'Stop it!'_ I scolded myself immediately for thinking those things and tried to shake the thoughts away. I didn't care, and I shouldn't care! I forced myself to stay seated in my bed, and forced my thoughts to keep from focusing on Kyoko…

**"…Do they hurt? Did someone hurt you?"** my meek voice spoke without my permission, nearly forcing me to slap my hand over my mouth to keep myself from speaking. Why was I doing this! Why did I care about a guy who hated me and Toga!

**"Knock it off, already…"** the low growl came from behind the bathroom door as the shower continued. This banter continued for quite a long time… I would struggle to not care about the elite, break just for a few moments and ask him if I could help, before he would snarl at me to just leave him alone.

But soon the elite stopped the shower, dried himself and changed into his sweats and left the bathroom. He barely looked at me as I remained sitting on my bed and instead stalked to his bed in the corner, threw back the blankets and dropped down into the mattress. He wasn't going to be in the mood to talk, I could see that closely enough… So I quietly sighed and got up from my bed, crossing the room and to the bathroom. I took out the bandages from the cabinet and turned back into the bedroom…

…And saw that Kyoko was already fast asleep.

The sweatshirt hood was pulled over his head tightly, covering his closed eyes but I could see his chest rise and fall as he slept… He was more exhausted than I was. I blinked before looking down at the bandages in my hand. …If I didn't mind the possibility of death, I might have wanted to bind up his wounds myself but… I would much rather live another day.

I walked to my bed as quietly as I could to avoid waking up the injured hunter and set down the bandages onto my nightstand… but then turned around and walked to his bed. His blankets were sitting in a crumpled mess on the floor after he had torn them off of the bed, leaving him laying on the bed with only the sweats to keep him warm. And when the rooms would get ice cold from the winter weather outside, and the fact that their Sensei barely let the thermostat go higher than 68 degrees even in the dead of winter not helping, he could easily get himself sick…

**"…Baka,"** I murmured softly as I picked up each of the blankets and draped them over his sleeping body. I saw him stiffen once at the touch before he slowly relaxed… or relaxed as much as he ever allowed himself. I tucked the blankets around him carefully to not stir him awake and then took a step back. He was still deeply asleep, and hopefully he was going to stay that way…

…But… his threat still lingered in my head. He said that if I told anyone… that he would kill me. Was I afraid?

…Yes. I was. He wasn't normal like me and Toga… There was something very different, something that I might never be able to find out. The sharpened teeth, the cuts, the bruises, the scars… They just didn't add up.

**"…Fine. I won't tell anyone,"** I muttered softly to him, even though I knew there was going to be no response. I let out a sigh and turned, walking back to my dresser and started to gather some pajamas. I still needed a shower… Maybe it would help with my aching body, even though I doubted that there was any hot water left after Kyoko's long shower.

I casted my gaze over his sleeping body once I managed to find my clothes before turning to the bathroom. Even if I was afraid of him, I can't let him see it… I will still force myself to stare into the eyes of the elite to make sure that he can't see my fear. But there was one more thing as I slid into the bathroom, glancing back at Kyoko one more time.

**"…But I'm not going to just stay quiet. I'll find out what's going on… No matter what."**


	8. Chapter 7

**"…What are you doing?"**

My marker paused on the white cast that firmly locked his leg in place. I looked up to my friend's face and saw the drowsy ice blue eyes looking back at me. I barely kept back a giggle at his confused look before I sat up in his bed. **"Signing your cast, silly,"** I chirped and looked down at his leg to my work.

The cat I had been scribbling on his leg was nearly done… but maybe if I actually knew how to draw, it might have looked nicer instead of looking like a bloated squirrel with whiskers. My little notes on his cast were drying, meaning it was far too late for him to desperately try to wash them off. I looked back to Toga and his blue eyes rolled slightly, even when amusement lingered in the gentle eyes.

We were the only two people in the room at the moment… Kyoko was more than likely still in the training hall, probably requesting extra training… But I knew that he was just trying to get away from me.

We hadn't spoken ever since I had… well… seen his naked body, and I didn't blame him for it. I hadn't said a word to anyone about what I had seen, not even to Toga, but the elite still refused to take any of my help. I still had no idea just what was wrong with him, but I doubted if I would find out any day soon. I was just glad that he was letting me have time with Toga…

He had been injured for three weeks now, and was barely allowed to go to training. The only thing he could do was work on his arm strength, but with how hard it was for him to move around, Kaien Cross gave up on that as well. Instead, Toga was to stay in bed until the bones knit together fully, or at least enough to where he can go without the crutches willingly. I knew that Toga hated staying in bed and would much rather be training and even risk injury than staying still… But it was just until his leg gets better.

I fluffed the pillow that sat underneath Toga's casted leg to help prop it up a little more and make him comfortable. I had been tending to Toga whenever we weren't training, and surprisingly enough, Kaien had allowed me to leave training early to come back to the room. Even if it was probably because Kaien didn't want the nurse to be babysitting Toga day and night, at least it was something slightly kind for him to do for me. Training had become less excruciating as well… Kyoko at least wasn't glaring at me every second of the day, and I felt more at ease with Toga than I had in months…

Maybe things were looking up.

**"I think your drawing could use a little work,"** Toga's deep chuckle stirred me back to the present and I looked down at the kitten/squirrel still plastered on his leg.

**"Oh hush, be glad I'm doing this at all,"** I giggled softly and adjusted myself on his bed and brought the marker back to his cast and began to finish the cat. I looked across his legs and saw the red hearts I drew, the doodle of myself, even the dinosaur I drew chewing on a steak. I didn't know what made me doodle those things, but I was glad I did. They were cute… And the amusement that came across Toga's face whenever he saw them was enough to make my heart swell.

He chuckled again and rested his head back down on the bed, his raven hair spreading out on the pillow. My marker scribbled on his white cast as silence consumed the room before I finally finished, capping the marker and tossing it to the pile I had set up right by his leg. **"There. Done,"** I chirped and looked back at him, a smile crossing my face.

A smirk played on his face as he lifted his leg just enough to look at my work, before rolling his eyes and setting his leg back down. **"…It's very nice, Sakura,"** he praised me, but I could hear the faint tone of sarcasm. The ice blue eyes closed as he let out a sigh and adjusted himself to get comfortable on the bed…

But I prodded his side. **"Not time to sleep yet, Toga,"** I snickered, knowing that he always tried to sleep during this time of the day when I had to do one of the most important things. He let out a groan and grabbed a pillow, pressing it against his face as if to block out my voice. But I only snickered and scooted myself closer to his chest.

**"I hate this…"** he complained, muffled through the pillow, before he shifted it away and soon hit it lightly against my shoulder. **"And I hate you for doing this to me,"** he moaned in fake agony as if I had already begun my torture.

**"Quit whining and just let me do it…"** I giggled and looked down to his chest. His torso was shirtless, but bandages were wound tightly around his chest. It was to keep the ribs properly in place… And after the first week of the nurse constantly wrapping, taking them off, rewrapping and such, I learned how to do it myself. The bandages tended to stretch after half of the day, leading to me having to rewrap them… It would be more than uncomfortable for Toga, but it had to be done.

So even as Toga muttered and grumbled about me having to torture him, I touched the bandages and started to unwrap them from around his chest. It was difficult reaching behind his back to keep unwrapping, mostly because he tried to press his back down as far as he could to keep me from grasping the bandages, but sooner or later, I pulled of the bandages.

His chest was looking better… The purple blotches and bruises that had spread across his chest now were a few faded marks, and his chest was looking far more normal than the flat and crushed look that he first had… It wouldn't be long before he was completely healed. I looked at the pile of bandages in my hands, let out a sigh before pressing one end of the bandages down and began to wrap them back up around his chest.

I could feel the hard muscle under my hand… The muscle flexed and relaxed every time that he breathed, and I soon tried to scoot my hand away in faint embarrassment… But then my hand cradled another muscle instead. His abs. They were just as hard, if not harder. I felt Toga stiffen underneath my hand, and it only clenched the muscles together. My hand darted back to my side immediately, and warmth spread through my cheeks just as quickly.

**"…You're blushing again."**

_'Gee, thanks,'_ I bit back my retort and the warmth only spread farther in my cheeks. This always happened every time I changed his bandages… He really had changed after the months of training. His body was packed heavier, and the leanness was starting to fade the more muscle that packed onto his body. He looked…

_…Sexy._

…Wait, what was I thinking?!

I couldn't be thinking about this now! Not now…! I hastily wrapped the bandages back around Toga's chest to try to keep my thoughts from running away from me again and tied them tight. Toga grunted as I did a quick pull to make sure that they were as tight as they could be, but the blush still hadn't left… I looked down at his chest, fixing my eyes on the bandages before I pulled them even tighter to make sure the ribs don't shift…

**"…It's… a little tight…"** Toga wheezed underneath my hand and I could just barely feel him tremble underneath my hand. His body stiffened as his chest struggled to expand before I realized the problem. I had tied the bandages all too tight, cutting off his lungs to be able to expand or contract.

A gasp fled from my lips as I immediately started to tug on the bandages to give him some room to breathe. **"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"** I yelped and just barely managed to give him room to breathe before he could quite possibly suffocate. He let out a breath once the bandages loosened and sighed in relief.

Great, now I almost killed him by accident…

I adjusted the bandages carefully this time, being careful to give him room to breathe properly without loosening the bandages too far. **"…I'm really sorry, Toga... I'm sorry I didn't pay attention…"** I mumbled in my misery and touched every bandage in turn, making sure that he had room. My hand graced across his skin slowly and gently, making sure not to put pressure on his body but sometimes he would stiffen anyway…

This had been the first time that I tied the bandages too tight… What if he hadn't spoken his pain and ended up suffocating? Or-

A hand grabbed onto my arm and pulled me down into the bed. Then an arm wrapped around my shoulders and my waist, pulling me up slightly against Toga's hard and muscular body. I was barely given time to react before he pulled me to his chest, nearly pressing me down into the bed.

**"…Will you just quit apologizing already?"** the husky voice said, nearly sending a shiver down my spine. I looked up and saw the slight smirk crossing over Toga's face, the amusement lighting his pale blue eyes. What was he going to do now? The smirk grew on his face as he pulled my body against his… My heart hammered against my chest, and the warmth flooded through my face… Before he tucked my head underneath his chin, pulling me up slightly onto his body. He let out a soft sigh and settled down to sleep.

…So that was what it was. He just wanted me to be quiet so he could sleep. A mixture of pure relief but also strange disappointment mingled in me as I grumbled something about him trying to be too rough. He only chuckled, letting his arms loosen around my shoulders and waist. I smiled just faintly and rested my head against his chest, listening as his heart beat healthily just underneath the skin… I was glad he was alright. Who knows what might have happened if he had been injured worse…

His hand moved just slightly on my back, his fingers sliding over my shirt and up my back… before sliding back down. Caressing me. My eyes flashed open with a jolt as his hand slid up and down my back slowly, but the hand continued to move lower… and lower… and lower… To the point that I could feel his fingertips touch the edges of my pants.

**"…T-Toga, what are you…?"** I stuttered, my body tensing underneath his gentle touch. His arm tightened just slightly around my shoulders before I felt his warm breath on the back of my neck. I looked up then met the ice blue eyes, but the amusement… was gone. There was another emotion. A heated emotion, one that send a shiver down my back to see in his eyes.

Soon his hand moved around my shoulders, reaching up and touching my cheek. His palm was warm against my skin as he delicately pulled my head up just a little more to meet his eyes. There was a fire scorching in the blue eyes, melting away the ice before his face leaned in just slightly…

…I panicked. We can't do this. Kaien was going to kick us out if someone caught us. My hands pressed against his chest in a futile attempt to push him back, but his arms and hands only tightened on my body. His breath was still warm on my skin but his lips turned down in a slight frown… **"…T-Toga, we can't…!"** I tried to tell him, but he didn't seem to want to listen.

**"Just… don't move,"** he murmured softly, his voice soft and gentle… The blue eyes softened before he leaned in closer, his lips nearly brushing against mine… Half of me pleaded for me to give in, to let him take me in his arms and do whatever he wished. But the other half… It begged for me to stop. It begged for me to push him away. It was the half that… didn't want this. And that was the half that I was giving into.

Yet… my body obeyed him. I remained still, even as my hands trembled against his chest. The rush of emotions tangled against each other, fighting for their own control of my body and… I just froze. I felt the lips press against mine, his lips soft and gentle as he kissed me. I could feel his hands grasp the back of my shirt, intertwining into the fabric…

What was he going to do to me? Fear flared in my chest as I felt his lips press harder, the grip growing tighter… My lungs burned in my chest as I kept my lips tightly closed, trying to refuse my body against his kiss but then… I gave in.

Softly, I moved my lips against his, even as my heart rammed against my ribs.

I knew this was wrong…

I knew that I should tell him to stop…

But… I couldn't do that to him. Not to Toga. Not to the only man I could ever possibly love.

As his lips pressed against mine, I could almost feel his emotions… His pain. His torture. His sadness. What were they for? Was it because we were in this training, unable to steal more than a few moments to ourselves? …Or was it because he knew what I had begun to suspect. That I didn't want our innocent relationship to grow past that. Obviously… he did.

I felt him start to roll my body down onto the bed, his arms still protectively wrapped around my body, as if shielding me from the truth that I already knew. I kissed him back, but just gently, even as he attempted to raise the tempo.

Soon, though, his lips parted from mine, and his ice blue eyes opened just slightly, looking down at my amethysts. The gentleness and the warmth in his eyes only grew as he took in a breath, as if to tell me something…

**"…Are you two done."**

Kyoko's voice shattered the moment, and Toga's entire body stiffened. The warmth and gentleness was sucked away before the raven-haired head glared back across the room, sharpness glinting in his gaze. Battling against letting my relief being shown, I followed his gaze and saw Kyoko, his cobalt eyes hardened in a glare, his arms crossed over his chest. From the looks of things… he's been there for a while.

Taking the chance to make my escape, I squirmed my way out of Toga's arms and pulled myself out of the bed before he could pull me back. **"D-don't tell Sensei! We weren't d-doing anything, I swear!"** I lied, though I knew that he wouldn't believe me. Especially if he had caught a single glimpse of Toga moving his hands all across my body. 'Not doing anything' was the last thing that would describe what was happening.

The bed creaked slightly as Toga sat himself up, but I could feel his surprise and maybe a bit of hurt of me denying what had happened. But he was lucky I wasn't smacking him across the face… I didn't want him to kiss me in the first place. I didn't want it at all. Yet he forced it on me…

But Kyoko only glared at me, then at Toga, and shook his head that was still partially covered with the sweatshirt hood. **"I don't care what the hell you two do. Sensei needs to see all three of us."** he muttered and he looked back to me.

It couldn't be training… He never started training so late in the day. And Toga was still unable to train… I blinked and looked back to Toga just as he grudgingly reached to grab his shirt that was on the other side of his bed to slide it on. He didn't seem to know either…

But Kyoko untucked his arms from his chest, and I saw the white slip of paper that had been hidden in the sleeve of his sweatshirt. My eyes gazed across the lettering before I saw the familiar symbol stamped on the corner.

It couldn't be…

**"…We have an order from the Hunter's Association. Level E. Tonight. All three of us."**


	9. Chapter 8

**"…You have got to be kidding me…"** my frustrated voice said as I looked up at my Sensei, who's amber eyes looked straight back at me. The cold amusement was flicking across his gaze again, but I knew he wasn't joking. Kyoko and Toga were standing beside me.

Kyoko was adjusting the sheath around his hips to keep a sword he had just received. Apparently it was one that had been passed down through his family for generations, and was now his… He slid the sword out from the sheath to admire the glinting steel, the sleek edges, the jagged tips meant for cutting and grinding through every part of a vampire…

Toga was on my other side, barely balancing on one of his crutches while he was holding his sword in the other. He was… disappointed. I could tell that the moment that he received the blade. It was smaller than Kyoko's, and much lighter, and looked much less dangerous. But he had held his tongue… At least he had been given a weapon that could do real harm against a vampire.

But both of them were now staring at the weapon that Kaien Cross had given me. I looked back down at my weapon…

…A hair-thin wire, looking as if it was merely dental floss.

**"…My hair brush can kill a vampire easier than this can,"** I muttered as I moved the thin strand in my hands. It was cold, as if it was made out of metal. But I didn't feel any sharp edges… It just seemed like a piano wire shaved down to something that could snap in an instant. It looked as thin as a piece of thread! The strand slid between my fingers with extreme ease, as if it was a piece of silk… How could this possibly be a weapon?

**"I'm sure it can, Sakura…"** Kaien Cross murmured, not bothering to hide the dark amusement in his voice. He reached out and quickly plucked the wire from my hand and walked past me, heading towards where the punching bags were set up. And of course he was going to use this chance to prove me wrong, just like every other moment that I opened my mouth…

My gaze darted to Toga as he balanced himself on the crutch, his casted leg dangling a mere inch from the ground. He didn't look back at me, but instead watched our Sensei… But I could almost feel his eagerness. He wanted to hunt… He wanted to prove to everyone that the training had been worth it… But he was still wounded. I figured that Kaien Cross was just going to tell him to stay put for another week and tell him that maybe he'll be assigned one later…

Or at least that was what I was hoping.

I barely held back a grumble and looked towards Kaien just as he walked towards the punching bag. He looked down at the wire in his hand, smirked, before wrapping it around the center of the punching bag where it was thickest. I watched in silence, waiting for spikes to suddenly shoot from the wire and impale into the punching bag, but nothing happened right away. My mentor looked back at me for a moment, smirked, before yanking hard on the wire.

Immediately, the wire ripped through the thick punching bag as if it was merely paper, slicing it in half cleaner than a sword could ever do.

My mouth nearly dropped to the ground at the same moment that the bottom half of the punching bag dropped. It scattered its contents onto the ground, spilling out stuffing and spreading around on the training room floor. The wire hung loosely from Kaien's hands and he delicately brushed off a few pieces of fabric and stuffing before wordlessly walking back to me and handing it back.

**"…On a vampire, it will cut much easier,"** Kaien murmured, as if thinking that he needed to prove to me more that it could actually be a weapon. I numbly stared down at the little thread, dumbfounded by its strength. One tiny little thread could cut something clean in half… **"But be careful not to wrap it tight around your hand or fingers, because then you might be missing a limb or two,"** he added warningly.

I didn't need to be told twice as I immediately stuffed the wire into my pocket, intent on not letting it cut into my skin today. But the smallest smile crossed my face as I looked at the wire coiled up in my pocket… I had a weapon, now. And it was possibly more dangerous than any sword.

No one would ever suspect that a small thread could destroy a vampire… Especially by slicing an entire limb off with just a simple tug. I tucked the wire away safely in my pocket, knowing that today wasn't the day to lose it. Not if there was going to be a hunting assignment.

Kaien soon walked back in front of the three of us, scanning his amber gaze among us before he spoke. **"Today's hunting mission should not be difficult if you focus. This Level E has only recently fallen, so some of its sanity might still remain. But with the three of you, it should not be a problem."**

…All three of us?

My gaze snapped up at his words, confusion crossing my face as I looked up at my mentor. He was completely serious… But to let Toga hunt when he was still on crutches…? **"S-sensei, Toga can barely walk…! He's not going to be able to fight with us as well as he should!"** I gasped, but heard Toga's soft hiss behind me nearly begging for me to be quiet. But I barely listened… Toga's safety meant more to me than a bit of his frustration.

The amber eyes gazed straight back at me, the icy calmness consuming the gaze until they flicked to the wounded hunter. Toga was still struggling to stay on his crutch while holding the sword in his other hand, but he didn't hesitate to stare right back at his mentor. The corner of Kaien's lips twitched as he fought back against a smirk of amusement as he watched his student struggle to stay upright… Was he really enjoying this?

**"…Toga. I will leave this up to you. Do you really believe you can carry out this hunting assignment?"** he asked the young hunter and took a step closer to him. His eyes were narrowed and calculating, as if he was examining if Toga really had the strength to keep himself from getting hurt.

I willed for Toga to say that he couldn't… To let his stubbornness die just for a moment and realize that he just couldn't throw his own life away and possibly be severely injured. But… My heart sank like a rock to the bottom of my stomach as Toga didn't even hesitate and nodded his head. I could see the stubbornness in his gaze… Even if I could understand why he wanted to prove himself to Kaien, he didn't need to put his life at risk for one single hunting mission.

Kaien let the smallest smirk touch his face as he moved closer to the wounded hunter. Toga only held the gaze as he adjusted his grip on his sword, tightening his grip so hard that I could see his knuckles turning white. He wanted to do this… And I already knew that there was no changing his mind.

**"…Then you will have no use for this,"** Kaien chuckled darkly before he immediately grasped the crutch and pulled it out from underneath Toga's grip. I saw Toga's look of surprise on his face, watched him stagger, and expected him to come crashing down to the floor… I almost wish he had. Then maybe he could have realized that there was no chance that he should go hunting with us.

But instead, he regained his balance as quick as he could, keeping as much weight as he could on his casted leg to keep his balance. Relief crossed Toga's face before it was replaced with a look of defiance at Kaien, knowing that he had proved himself as worthy to hunt as long as he could stand. But my heart only sunk deeper, filling with dread to what was going to happen to my friend… He was in no shape to hunt, but I knew no one would be able to stop him now.

**"…Idiot,"** I heard Kyoko mutter beside me and soon pass me and walk towards the door. I couldn't help but agree with him as I watched Toga as Kaien gave him a few quick tips on handling his sword. I hesitated for a moment, before quietly beginning to follow Kyoko to the door with a heavy heart. They had already received an estimate of where the Level E was going to be… There was nothing left to do than to try their best to find the Level E before it gets too dark to hunt…

As I reached the door, I heard the thunking of Toga's cast clomping on the ground as he rushed after both of us, but painfully unsteady and slow. **"S-Sakura, wait!"** he called out to me, but softly to try not to gain Kaien or Kyoko's attention. I hesitated but eventually looked back to see my friend behind me.

His blue eyes locked with mine, and I caught a slight glint of the gentleness, but there was also a thick seriousness… He reached out and grasped my wrist to prevent me from walking any farther and instead pulled me closer. Toga leaned in closer before murmuring in my ear, **"After this, I need to talk to you… Meet me in the training hall. Alright? We can be alone and no one will hear us…"**

…Great. Now if he dies, I won't ever be able forgive myself for stopping him. And if he lives, I will be forced to tell him the truth… The truth that I knew he didn't want to hear.

I already knew what he wanted to talk about. He was going to tell me. It was no secret, especially after what Toga tried to do to me. I swear, if my heart could fall out of my body and shatter onto the ground, it would have done so already… Because every single thought weighed down on it. And I knew that there was no way to avoid it…

So instead, I just gave a sharp nod and turned away, pulling my arm out of his grip. **"…I'll be there,"** I murmured to him, but just barely allowed my voice loud enough to let him hear. I didn't want to meet him about this… I didn't want to destroy his hopes. …Maybe I could let him down gently. Somehow.

It took a few moments as I passed through the door before I heard the steady clumping behind me. Toga had fallen silent, and I almost wanted to beg to know what he was thinking… But then I could already take a guess. Maybe he thought I didn't love him. Maybe he thought that I was afraid after he had kissed me like that… Or maybe he thought that this entire relationship was over. …Maybe it was.

My shoulders sagged as I snagged my coat on a hanger right beside the double doors, knowing that snow was already starting to fall again outside. The last thing I needed was a cold to take me out of training for a week or two, and then get stuck with Toga in the same room as me… And after how miserable we're both going to be…

I welcomed the snow as it drifted into the building once Kyoko thrust open the heavy doors. It nearly blew me back, but I didn't care too much. All I did was hand Toga his own coat, wait for him to slip it on, before following Kyoko's form out into the snow. He walked ahead of them, already knowing the way to where the Level E was camping out. It was close to the town that was set right beside the training academy, too close to innocent people…

I listened to the sound of our steps crunching through the fresh snow, and barely noticed the biting cold on my hands and face. I watched my breath crystallize in the frigid air before I looked back. Toga was attempting to keep his cast from getting wet by the snow… But it wasn't going to be possible.

_'Toga, you should have just stayed home…'_ I mourned to myself, knowing that he should have stayed at home instead of walking with them in the deepening snow. He struggled with a deep patch, trying to drag himself through the snow but he was getting slower and slower…

I looked back up ahead, seeing Kyoko already stalking ahead. He probably found a scent… He could scent a vampire a mile away. Sometimes he would be distracted in training because of a vampire coming too close to the training building, even when neither Toga nor I could scent out the vampire. He soon started to turn, walking to the right before stopping. It must be close…

I breathed in the scents, but I couldn't smell anything other than snow and ice. I blinked and tried to take in another breath, but I couldn't scent it at all… "Sakura, maybe we should take a different direction… We must be upwind," I heard Toga murmur behind me, keeping his voice down to keep from distracting Kyoko as he worked.

My body stiffened at the thought. Separate? From maybe the only hunter that had any idea where the vampire could be? I whirled around to face Toga, nearly slipping in the slick snow, but glared back at him slightly. **"Are you nuts, Toga?! You can barely walk, and you want to go by ourselves?"** I muttered at him, even if I could feel the yell building up in my throat. Toga might be willing to risk his own life… But I wasn't. I didn't intend to die today.

The ice blue eyes blinked in faint surprise at my tone but then they softened again. **"We just need to find a place that's safe… And I was just thinking that we could talk out here,"** he tried to sooth me, and there was even a faint smile on his lips, if not a nervous one. He shifted himself a little closer before reaching out to gently grasp my hand…

But I took a step back. **"Toga, we can't do this now!"** I gasped at his advance, and now a bit of pain flickered across the gentle blue eyes… The smile faded from his face, replaced by a soft frown, but I refused to be swayed.

…This might be my only chance to tell him. This might be the only time to try to drag some sense into him before he gets himself killed. And this might be my only chance to tell him just what we couldn't do… I took in a deep breath before I looked at Toga straight in the eye. I had to make him understand this… Kaien's warning echoed through my head again.

We can't afford to get distracted. We were too weak to let emotions take us away…

**"…Toga. You need to understand this."** My eyes tightened as I forced my voice to remain as strong as I could muster it, but the frown only lengthened on his face. **"We just ****_can't._**** We can't do this now. Maybe in a year, maybe in five, I don't know when, but we just can't…! We have to focus on what we're doing here. If we get distracted and we don't focus, it could get both of us killed!"**

…Toga flinched. He broke the gaze. The ice blue eyes clouded with a deep pain as he stared down at the white snow.

…Toga never flinched. Throughout as long as I've known him, he had never flinched at anything. Guilt dug deep into my heart as I realized what I had just said. …All he was doing was loving me. And I couldn't even accept that. …But he had to understand…

**"Toga, please…"** I murmured, my voice turning soft as I took a step closer to him. The hunter barely forced back another flinch and lowered his head, but I could just barely see the tears watering in his ice blue eyes before the black hair quickly crossed over his face in an attempt to hide it.

I hesitated… But then I took another step closer to where I was standing right in front of him. Delicately, I cradled his face and pulled it back up to look back at me. The tears still lingered in the corner of his eyes before I delicately wiped them away with my thumb, trying to copy the gentleness that he had showed me. The eyes locked with mine, and I could see his raw pain…

He never had anyone love him before… Yet he opened his heart to me. **"…You're my best friend, Toga… and I love you… But we just can't do this yet… Alright?"** I told him gently, and delicately stroked his cheek with my thumb to try to soothe him. He remained in his silence… He probably didn't even believe me.

I paused to collect my thoughts before I let out a soft sigh. Why did this have to be so hard to say… **"I will always love you, but we have to wait. We just can't-"**

**"Sakura, get down!"**

Kyoko's voice shattered my words in a heartbeat, and I felt every drop of blood in my body freeze into solid ice. A scent rushed over my tongue, and I breathed in the scent…

Vampire.

It was behind me.

I barely caught the sight of the ice blue eyes widening before I tried to turn around to see just where the vampire was… But then arms wrapped around me, pulling me to the side, and a hand covered my eyes, plunging me into darkness.


	10. Chapter 9

…I felt a warm liquid splatter onto my clothes. The arms that held me close against a warm body stiffened and grasped me only tighter. I could feel something sharp jabbing at me in my back, trying to tear through my coat and plunge into my flesh. There was a muffled grunt beside me, and I could feel the hand that covered my eyes tighten, as if to block me from seeing whatever had happened.

The jabbing in my back soon disappeared, replaced by the feeling of the liquid soaking into my clothing at an alarming rate. **"…S-Sakura, are you okay?"** I heard a shaken voice, and my entire body jolted in alarm as I realized that it was Toga. Did Toga protect me from the hit? Was he hurt? What happened?!

I struggled in the man's grip and felt all the color wash out of my face. If he was hurt… I couldn't ever forgive myself. I was distracted and the Level E could have easily killed me… But if he took the hit… **"T-Toga, I'm fine, d-did it hit you?"** I gasped and grabbed the hand that was pressed against my eyes and pulled it back. I whirled around in his grasp and looked up…

…And saw Kyoko's cobalt eyes staring back, tinted slightly with pain.

His arm was wrapped tight around my waist, now pressing my body against his hard chest. I could feel his stiffened body tremble slightly with pain and the warm liquid soon beginning to spread onto my stomach. In my shock, I didn't think twice to look down to see just what was soaking me…

Kyoko's blood.

It already soaked through his sweatshirt down by his stomach, and I could see the rips in the fabric where something had ripped through. The crimson red was plastered over my own coat, and I could still feel where it had soaked my back. More crimson blood was leaking from his stomach, but the wound was covered by fabric.

Blood dripped down onto the snow as the blood leaked down the front of his stomach, but it was also dripping down from his back. A stab through his body… Through his stomach, even. My jaw would have dropped into the snow if I hadn't managed to control the sickness that rose up my throat like bile. My body froze and I could feel every thought in my head turn blank except for one thing… This was bad…

This was very, very bad…

**"S-Sakura!"** I heard Toga's yelp come from behind Kyoko's protective body, snapping me back to reality in a heartbeat. I forced the sickness away and tore my gaze up from the wounded hunter and looked over his shoulder. Toga was staggering on his feet, trying to balance himself on his casted leg while holding his sword tightly in his hand. His eyes were locked onto a creature that stood in front of him, hissing at Toga.

It was the Level E… A female, but that made it no less dangerous. The disgusting creature had long, shaggy black hair that drifted down past its shoulders. Its eyes were nearly bulging out of its skull, vivid with madness, and its lips were peeled back to expose the enormous fangs jutting out from under its lips. The clothing that covered its body were ripped and torn, and there was a fresh splatter of blood against its chest…

But then I saw the red droplets that dripped down onto the snow. My eyes followed the droplets, praying that somehow Toga had wounded it, but my hope soon turned to horror. It came from the chunk of bloodied flesh clutched tightly in its fist, the long claws hooked deep inside the chunk to keep it from sliding out of its grip.

A grin was crossing the beast's face as it took a step back from Toga and looked down at the chunk of flesh tightly clenched in its fist. A cackle came from the beast as it brought the chunk to the lips before biting down into it savagely, nearly biting off a few of its own fingers with it. Happy with its snack, and knowing better than to let the hunters have the chance to attack it, the savage turned and rushed back to the long grove of trees that surrounded the small clearing.

Which left all three of us watching its fleeing form, stunned into silence…

Until Kyoko crumpled down to the ground.

His weight nearly collapsed onto me as he fell down to his knees, his protecting arms withering away as if he no longer had the strength to hold them up. A soft gasp of pain came from the wounded hunter as he tried pressing his hands against the wound in his stomach. But blood was already draining down between his pale fingers, dripping down into the snow and staining the once pure snow into the crimson death streaks. It seemed to be a fountain of blood as it poured from his wound and gave no hint of it stopping anytime soon…

My shock froze me. My body screamed at me to either help Kyoko or run to get help, but I found that I couldn't do either… All I could do was watch as his blood stained the snow, spreading out into a pool on the frozen tundra…

**"Sakura, snap out of it!"** a hiss came to my ear as Toga's hand grabbed me hard on my shoulder and gave me a shake. Control rushed back into my body as I tore myself away from looking at the blood and looked up at Toga. He didn't even glance at Kyoko… Instead his eyes were wide as he pointed back to where the Level E had disappeared to. **"We don't have time for you to shut down on me!"**

No, there was no time. There wasn't going to be able to be a moment of hesitation in either of us. My head was already starting to rush with the first aid that Kaien had taught us, with how to bandage a deep cut, how to put pressure on the wounds, what to do when bandages weren't around… I looked back to Kyoko and saw that he had already slipped down to his hands and knees, still desperately trying to stop the bleeding in his stomach. I had to act now. I took the step closer to Kyoko before kneeling down, reaching out to try to press my hand against the wound in his back.

But then Toga grabbed onto my arm and hauled me up to my feet. He gave no hesitation to my stunned form as he started to yank me away, dragging me away from Kyoko's bleeding body. **"No, the Level E! We have to get it now before it gets away!"** Toga snarled as his ice blue eyes tightened as they met mine.

…The Level E? That was all he was worried about?

I could have sworn that my heart paused in my chest as my mouth dropped. My eyes were locked with Toga's, but his icy gaze only hardened with no sympathy or worry for Kyoko in sight. **"…The vampire? You're worried about the vampire? B-but Kyoko…!"** I gasped as I tried to find one spark of humor in Toga's eyes to know that he was kidding… He couldn't just leave Kyoko for dead… Not…

…Not when he was injured just because he was protecting me.

Toga's lips peeled back just slightly, though, as anger raged through his body. **"I don't care about him! It's his own damn fault he got hurt and it's not our problem if he dies!"** my friend snarled at me and I could feel his grip tightening on my arm.

…He couldn't be serious. He just couldn't be. My jaw nearly fell off of my face as I felt my blood freezing in my veins. He really wanted to leave Kyoko to die? Just because of a stupid Level E? **"T-Toga, we can't just leave him here to die! He's still our training partner and we're supposed to look after each other! And if that Level E comes back while we're gone, he'll be eaten alive!"** I pleaded with him and tried to pull my arm free from his grasp. We didn't have time to argue like this… Not with Kyoko bleeding out while we were bickering.

The ice blue eyes tightened before a dark glint appeared in the icy stare. His teeth gritted against each other as anger and frustration built up in his injured body before he finally snarled, **"Why do you care! You said it yourself, that if he gets in your way, that there will be hell to pay for it. You hate him, but you're letting him get in the way now? This is our only chance to prove to Sensei that we're better than him! That we can kill that Level E without getting ourselves killed like he will!"**

His grip on my arm tightened before he yanked on it, dragging me to stand in front of him even when I tried desperately to pull myself away. The icy eyes hardened as they stared into mine, refusing to release their grasp on me… **"…We'll be better than he ever was. We'll survive. Plus, his blood will make the Level E come back. We can use him to kill the Level E! And we'll finally be rid of him!"**

…My body jolted stiff in a heartbeat. An unearthly silence claimed us, and the peace of the tundra around us had now become cold, dark, and deadly as the silence grew. …use Kyoko… as bait. Leave him here to die… While we use his death to our advantage. And Toga wanted that more than ever… to use one man's death to benefit us.

I yanked my arm free from his grasp, even as his icy eyes didn't look away from mine. I could feel my own gaze beginning to chill like the ice around us as I took a step back from him, and then another. Toga wanted Kyoko to die just so he could finish off the hunting mission… When the entire reason that he was crumpled to the ground, dying, bleeding out, was… because of me. If Kyoko hadn't…

**"…Toga, if he hadn't protected me, I would be dead. …And now you want him to die because he saved me."**

The words were a soft murmur, but the coldness that frosted over each syllable was enough to create a new Ice Age. I saw the once gentle gaze of my friend remain cold and hard… before he turned away. **"I'll kill it myself…"** he muttered as he grabbed his sword before starting to limp his way towards the grove of trees.

I thought about stopping him… But I refused. I instead turned away from Toga's running form and looked down to Kyoko, his blood still spreading on the once white snow. He was trembling slightly, and I could just barely see his skin paling to match the whiteness of the snow. He had already lost a lot of blood…

Too much blood…

I knelt down into the snow beside him and delicately touched his shoulder, pulling him down to try to lay him down on the snow. But his body stiffened up immediately at my touch, and a soft growl rumbled in his chest. **"Kyoko, it's me…"** I murmured to him in an attempt to sooth him but I knew that it was better not to waste my breath… Just because I wanted to help him didn't mean that he was willing to accept my help.

But to my surprise, the hunter's muscles loosened before he slid down onto his side in the snow with a soft gasp of pain. I highly doubted though that it was all his own will, though. He seemed to be so weak… and fragile… More than I had ever seen him. Yet he forced himself to regain whatever of his apparent strength that he had left to even move.

**"…G-go get the damn thing…"** the soft grunt came from Kyoko as his hand remained tightly pressed against his stomach, not allowing me to get a closer look at his wound. I shifted myself in the snow to get closer, but he only stiffened. His dark blue eyes cracked open and looked up at me, and there was a clear shine of pain in his eyes, but they were dulling. So was the life in them… There wasn't much time left to help him.

**"I'm not leaving you alone, Kyoko,"** I scolded him softly before my eyes looked down to his stomach. His sweatshirt was soaked with blood from both the front and the back and the blood covered his paling skin thickly. Who knows how much blood he's already lost… But I needed to put pressure on that wound as much as I could before the rest of his blood pours out. I shrugged myself out of my jacket and slid it down from my shoulders before pressing the fabric against his hand and stomach.

The icy winds of winter soon blasted against my body without a shield to protect me, and I couldn't help but flinch at the sudden sensation. I wanted to pull that coat back over me as soon as possible, but Kyoko would die if that blood wasn't stopped soon… I could handle a sniffle or two from this as long as Kyoko was alright. This was, after all, all my fault that he was like this in the first place.

**"D-damn it, kid…"** he grunted, his body stiffening up as I pressed the coat to his wound, and I felt his hand soon slide out from underneath the coat. It rested limply on the snow, the fingertips already beginning to be claimed by a corpsish gray… His breath crackled in his lungs as he tried to force in enough air to speak but his raspy voice soon came back. **"I'm done… L-leave me out of this…"**

"Shut up and let me help," I partially growled at him, but my voice nearly broke as I saw the blood start soaking through my coat. Was it too late…? Was I too late? Was he going to die because of me? I forced my eyes away from the red that was soaking into my coat and looked up to his face, but I realized with a jolt that his cobalt eyes had already closed. The mist that came from his lips with his breath was beginning to fade away… His body had fallen deathly still…

I had never seen someone die before. I never saw the light begin to die from their eyes, the stillness their bodies become, and the coldness that started to claim their bodies… But I refused to let Kyoko be the first person I see die.

**"Kyoko, you're not dying on me!"** I snarled, but it took every bit of control to try to keep back a sob. I had never seen so much blood in my life… The sight itself was making me sick to my stomach, and now the sickness was starting to crawl its way back up my throat. He couldn't die… I refused it.

But when no voice answered me, I tore my gaze away from his face and looked back at his stomach. I pulled the coat around his stomach and tied it as tight as I could around his stomach and back to try to keep the blood from flowing, even as I felt the warm liquid stain my hands. Kaien had taught each of us how to carry a dead or wounded person without injuring ourselves… Now it was time to put it to the test.

I wrapped my arms around Kyoko's hips before I painstakingly pulled his legs and waist over my shoulder. The weight already nearly pushed me down into the bloodstained snow, but I refused to give up yet. I couldn't be weak… I needed to make sure Kyoko survived and my weakness couldn't get in the way of that. I heaved his body up to where his lower waist rested on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and gripped his arms to try to keep him in place.

Once I was sure that he wasn't going to slip, I staggered my way up to my feet. My legs trembled underneath me as I pulled him up with me, but then I took a staggering step, and then another… Kyoko's weight barely shifted on my shoulder, even as I felt his blood soak into my shoulder. I tried not to think of the red blood… Of the wound… The chunk of his meat in the Level E's grip… And I tried not to think of how willing Toga had been to let him die in the snow. Alone.

My hand shifted around his shoulders, moving down to his back. I felt his weight shift just slightly, as if about to fall off of my shoulder and I desperately tried to grab onto his sweatshirt on his back for support …

Then felt something warm under my hand. It was squishy… Wet… And warm. There was a soft pulsing underneath my fingertips, just barely vibrating on the edge of my fingertips. What was it…? My fingers tightened around the warm, squishy object, but then felt Kyoko's entire body stiffen up. A soft hiss slid from his lips, as if he was in pain…

I immediately pulled my hand from the warm object I was grasping. I felt something hard scrape against the back of my hand as I pulled it out, something that seemed to not have any give against my hand. What had I been touching? I hesitantly moved my hand back in front of my face as I adjusted my grip on Kyoko…

…and saw the bright red blood that covered my hand completely.

Flecks of meat stuck to my fingers, each of them soft and different shades of red. Other fluids, some clear and some otherwise, mixed in with the blood as well. The soft flesh… It was his internal organs. The pulsing I had felt had been from whatever blood he had left pulsing through the organs. The hard thing I had touched could easily have been bone or his spine…

I wanted to vomit. The sickness rushed up from my stomach and I could almost taste it in the back of my throat. My vision blurred for a moment, as if I was about to pass out at the sight and realization of what I had touched… I had literally reached inside Kyoko, grabbed his organs… Grabbed the meaty, disgusting strips of meat that lingered in his body…

But I forced myself to swallow the sickness down and moved my bloodied hand to grasp his side, keeping it far away from his horrendous wound. The dizziness that had begun to pool in my head was shaken off before it could fully take its control. I couldn't act like this now… I couldn't act squeamish to the sight of his wound or what remained of it.

Instead I forced myself to focus on the soft mist that slid from Kyoko's lips, even as a soft trail of crimson red was beginning to peak from the corner of his lips and slipped down his chin. I watched the mist appear… then disappear… Appear and then disappear. I watched each precious breath that was pulled into his lungs as I forced myself forward, trudging my way through the bloodstained snow…

And I hoped that by the time I reached Kaien Cross that his heart was still beating and that thin mist still slid in and out of his blood streaked lips.


	11. Chapter 10

I stared down at my bedroom floor, waiting for the emotions to crash down on my stunned body. I felt numb… cold… chilled… And alone. And what didn't help was the knowledge that there was simply nothing more that I could do.

Kyoko had just barely been alive when Kaien Cross had gone out to look for us… He said he smelled all the blood… He had pulled Kyoko from my trembling grip without another word and raced him into the infirmary, and that was the last I had seen of the blood covered hunter. I had waited outside the infirmary doors for an hour while more nurses had to be called into the infirmary to tend to Kyoko's dying condition, and then doctors… By the fourth doctor, Kaien had helped me to my room.

I had been far too numb to listen to Kaien. All I heard was that they would do everything they could to help Kyoko… And that I should rest… And clean the blood from my body.

The crimson splatters still clung to me but the warm blood had since grown cold and began to dry. The stains were turning rustic… Their scent was making me sick to my stomach but I couldn't find the urge to step into the shower and get rid of the stains. Instead, I looked at the floor… then I looked up to the beds.

Kyoko's was empty, and could always stay that way.

Toga's was even more empty. I didn't even know when he was coming back… He still hadn't come back from trying to hunt the Level E… He could be out there alone… Broken… dying… And once again, it would all be my fault. I was the one to let him go by himself and possibly let himself get killed… Why couldn't I tell him to stay with me…

I pulled my legs up to my chest, wrapping my bloodstained arms around them and tucked them to me. I stared down at the stains… Blood remained caked onto my hand, but the sickness I had felt was now a distant memory. It was like… I couldn't feel anything at all. I was just too shocked. I couldn't wrap my head around just what had happened…

…I could quite easily lose Toga and Kyoko tonight. Their lives could be stripped away…

And it was all my fault. Every ounce of it.

I forced my amethyst eyes to close, even though I already knew that there would be no chance of me being able to sleep tonight. Kaien told me that if there was any change in Kyoko's condition, for better or for worse, that he would tell me immediately… I couldn't afford to sleep while I waited for Kaien, even if he had told me that it would be best that I would.

He already told me that practice would be canceled for the rest of the week to give us all a chance to recover. He was probably worried about all of us, even if he refused to say it out loud… Who wouldn't be. Because of me, two of his students could die.

A herd of footsteps outside my door pulled me out of my thoughts, and I lifted my head and looked towards the door. I prayed that Kaien would be standing at my doorway… He would be telling me that they found Toga safe and sound, and that Kyoko was going to be alright…

…But then I heard the unfamiliar voices grunting to each other. The voices were warning the nurses to get more bandages, be prepared for heavy bleeding… One said that the artery had been nicked and that they needed to move faster… And then I heard Kaien's voice. **"What happened to him?"** he demanded outside my door even as I could hear the strain in his voice for him to stay as quiet as possible as if to not alarm me.

**"…We found Yagari out in the snow. The Level E ran off and left him just outside the front doors. His arm had been slashed and his chest…"**

…The voices began to fade as the continued rushing down the hall. I wasn't listening anymore…

Because I had already broke.

I buried my face into my knees and felt the tears rush down my cheeks, and I tried to not make a sound. I should have been stronger than this… I shouldn't be crying now… But I just couldn't stop the waves of grief, agony and guilt that started to pour down into my body.

It's my fault…

It's all my fault…

Why did I let Toga get me distracted… And for what? Just for me to all but tell him that I didn't love him… And now he could quite possibly be dying. Him and Kyoko. Dead. Kyoko from protecting me… Toga from loving me. All because of me…

My arms tightened on my legs as a choked sob escaped my lips, but I forced it back into silence. No, I had to keep some control. Keep the emotions back… I needed to stay strong for Kyoko and Toga. But I kept my head buried into my knees, feeling the hot tears drip down my cheeks and sometimes tasted the bitter saltiness as they slipped to my lips. If I could have tasted pain… it would have burned my tongue with the intensity.

I don't know how long I sat there, letting the tears fall off of my face, breathing in the scent of the drying blood on my clothing. I listened for any sign of life outside my door… But it didn't come. They were fighting for their lives and I wasn't allowed in. Now I was forced to listen… To wait for the news that I was dreading to hear…

_'They're dead…_

They're gone…

It's all because of you, Sakura…

All because-'

Knock, knock.

My head snapped up at the sound, even as I felt my cheeks drenched with tears. My eyes stung from crying but I couldn't care less… **"…Sakura? It's Cross,"** was the soft murmur on the other side of the door. He didn't need to say that again… I was already up at my feet as I rushed to the oak door and grabbed the handle as if my life depended on it before throwing the door open.

Kaien Cross stood on the other side, his amber eyes calm but they were softer than the hardness that always claimed them. Maybe he knew as well that it wouldn't be long before I would break apart. The only two people I was even slightly close to would soon be gone… Maybe he was going to try to soften the blow.

**"H-how are they?"** I immediately begged him, not caring if I looked like an idiot that couldn't deal with the pain of my friends' wounds. I pressed my hand against the doorway and felt it tremble slightly. My fingers clutched slightly into the wood as I awaited his answer…

Thankfully for my sanity, I didn't have to wait long. The calmness didn't waver for a moment in Kaien's eyes as he spoke again. **"Critical condition yet stable. If you wish, you can see them but both are asleep."**

Relief poured into my body at his words… It nearly made my legs give out underneath me with the thick relief. Even if they were in critical condition, at least they were stable. That was all I could hope for right now… I let a breath rush out of my lips, and I had no idea just how long I had been holding it in while waiting for the news. They were going to be okay…

With a little luck, they were going to be fine…

Kaien took a step back from the doorway to give me enough room to slip out, which I took advantage of immediately. He didn't speak, as if he knew what I already wanted to do… Without a moment to think about possibly changing out of the bloody clothes, or even trying to fix myself up to not reveal that I had been crying for the past however many hours, I was already running down the hall.

My heart rammed in my chest as my steps carried me to the doors with the word 'Infirmary' printed across the glass window. I rushed to the door, flung them open…

And saw Kyoko's nearly lifeless body resting in the infirmary bed. A nurse was standing beside him, checking his vital signs and wiping a bit of blood from his cheek.

…I hadn't let the thought cross my mind of just what Kyoko's shape would be. I hadn't imagined that he would look so… fragile. Tubes were attached to his arms to pump blood into his body and other IVs were attached to him as well, letting liquid that was possibly saving his life flow into him. His sweatshirt had been removed from him, and the blanket was just up to his waist. The wound in his stomach had been wrapped up, sealed shut, but I could still see the crimson ooze out of his tightly bound bandages.

**"…Kyoko…"** his name slipped from my lips as I numbly took a step closer to him. The bruises were still scattered across his body, the scars, the cuts… Nothing had changed. Except for that one single wound that nearly killed him because of my mistake.

The nurse lifted up her head as she heard my voice, blinking slightly in confusion at the sight of me. **"…Miss Sakura, he will stay asleep for a few more hours because of the anesthetic… Yagari is in the other room but he's also asleep."** she told me softly with a faint smile as if to cheer me up, but she seemed dazed… After working with not one, but two dying people, it wasn't unheard of for her to be tired.

A small nod was my only response as I slid my way closer to Kyoko's bedside. The nurse fell into silence but delicately scooted up a chair beside his bed for me to sit in. I murmured a thanks and slid down into the chair and looked to Kyoko's face…

How much pain was he in? Was he really going to be alright? I hesitated before I looked down at the bandages that patched up the gaping wound that was in his stomach. They probably had to reconstruct everything… I don't know how, but somehow, they did. …Or maybe they planned on opening him up once again to replace broken down organs… Fight off the infection… Try to stop the internal bleeding…

I forced the thoughts away. Kyoko was strong, stronger than I ever could be. He'll survive. If not… He sure as hell wasn't going to get away that easily. I forced my eyes away from his wounded stomach before I looked down to his side… His hand laid on the bed, limp and lifeless, just like the rest of the body that it was attached to.

…Maybe he just needed someone to stay by him. From the looks of things, no one ever was close to him before. He always pushed everyone away… But now he had no choice.

**"…You're the one that protected me,"** I murmured to his lifeless body as my careful, slender hand wrapped around his chilled hand. I tucked my fingers delicately around his palm before moving my other hand on top of it. My thumb stroked the back of his cold hand gently, waiting for a single pulse of moment to let me know that he was still here with me…

But his hand rested limp, unaware of my gentle hold. My heart crashed with bitter disappointment, and my words stuck in my throat… But then I delicately moved his hand up and rested it against my cheek. His palm cupped against my cheek perfectly, as if…

**"…I won't let you die because of what you did for me."**


	12. Chapter 11

A soft prodding in my shoulder awoke me and I hadn't realized I had fallen asleep until my blurry amethyst eyes opened. I was slumped down into a bed, my head nestled into the white sheets. Immediately I sat up and tried to shake the drowsiness from my body. It must be time for training again… Toga must have woken me up to keep from being caught by Cross.

…But then I heard a beeping sound. My amethyst eyes remained blurred as I tried to find the cause of the sound before they caught onto the monitor. That thin line was jumping up and down on the screen… It beeped endlessly, annoyingly. My eyes narrowed at the line as irritation flooded into my body as I wished to turn the damn thing off so I could sleep…

Then I saw the wire. The wire ran down from the monitor, trailing over the side of the bed that sat before me. The wire curled a few times before it led down into a patch that was connected to someone's chest. That someone… was Kyoko. My eyes flashed to his face and saw that his cobalt eyes were closed, his skin reduced to a nearly corpse gray and his lips barely moved with his breath. My body stiffened up in alarm as my drowsy head swirled to try to find an explanation for what had happened to him…

…But then I remembered.

I remembered everything.

I remembered the hunt, the blood, the guts that clung to my hand… The waiting, the doctors giving out orders, the smell of fresh blood… The fact that both Kyoko and Toga were now fighting for their lives.

**"Sakura, dear?"** a gentle soothing voice spoke to me just as the memories rushed into my head again. I forced my eyes up from the patch that was connected to Kyoko's chest, while also knowing fully well that it hadn't been there before I saw the nurse standing beside me. Her hand was delicately resting on my shoulder from prodding me awake and a soft smile was across her face.

**"I-is he going to be okay?"** I stammered as my hands searched on the bed before quickly finding Kyoko's dropped hand, wrapping my own hands around it as if it was my lifeline. It was still cold and lifeless… He must be getting worse. The damage must have been too great and he was slowly dying… Slowly suffering…

The nurse's smile didn't falter for a moment even as I saw a shadow of sadness cross her gentle eyes. My heart sunk in my chest as she simply chuckled before delicately trying to pry my hand from Kyoko's lifeless grip. **"Dear, he needs to rest… If he makes it through the night then he will be fine."**

If he makes it through the night?! My hands grasped onto the paled hand harder and shifted it away from the nurse's grasp. **"What do you mean, through the night?"** I demanded, trying to make my voice sound firm but the pain in my voice was already making it crack. It felt as if someone was choking me slowly… He was dying and no one was going to admit it to me! No one wanted to tell me the truth!

Especially not this nurse, as she delicately grasped my hand and worked to pry my clenched fingers from his dying hand. **"Don't worry, please…"** she said with a sigh and the smile was beginning to falter on her face. Her green eyes glanced back to me and I could see the strain reflecting in the emerald pools… Everyone was tired. Everyone wanted to give up already. But they couldn't…! They couldn't give up on him, not so soon!

**"…But Yagari has been awake for some time and he has been asking to see you."**

Toga… He was awake.

Almost immediately, my hand loosened from Kyoko's hand, but didn't let go. He was awake… That had to mean that he was going to be alright. But what had exactly happened to him? My amethyst eyes blinked before I swallowed down my fear and opened my mouth to ask… and found that the nurse was already answering my questions before I had the chance to even think of them.

**"Apparently he had attempted to hunt the Level E on his own and was injured severely. He had deep lacerations on his arm and shoulder and on other parts of his body but we found no traces of the Level E anywhere. It seems like it escaped after Toga had collapsed…"** she reported and her hand delicately released mine to let me absorb the shock. So Toga really did go after that Level E by himself…

**"…So that Level E is still out there?"** I numbly asked, feeling my still sluggish brain comprehend what she had said. Toga had been enough of an idiot to go after that Level E… He didn't stop and turn back. His pigheaded stubbornness had gotten in his way again and he didn't bother to listen to any reason, as if he had any. A soft nod from the nurse was all I needed for a reply before I let out a sigh. Cross would throw a fit if we all failed this hunting mission… And with Kyoko and Toga down… Then…

I quietly slid out of my chair and prepared myself to let go of Kyoko's hand. I reached down into my pocket with my other hand and felt the wire still neatly coiled in my pocket. Now it was my turn… It was my turn to try to take down the beast. My fingertips had only just been able to start sliding out of Kyoko's grip, though, before the nurse grabbed onto my wrist.

**"S-Sakura, you know you can't leave the grounds!"** the nurse gasped, her face paling a few shades as she looked at me with shock.

Damn it, I had nearly forgotten… It was one of Kaien's golden rules. Never leave the grounds, at any cost. It was dangerous and he threatened to expel whoever goes outside the boundaries without permission. That means that there was no chance for any of us to sneak out to go hunting or anything… And unfortunately, that rule rang true now. And I doubted that there was any chance of convincing Kaien to allow me out to hunt a Level E that had nearly killed both of his other students.

**"But we can't fail this mission! It's our first mission and he'll refuse to see us as hunters if we fail it!"** I retorted and my amethyst eyes narrowed. My hand tightened on the coiled wire in my pocket and scowled back at the nurse, but only concern was crossing her face…

**"But you can't go out now… Wait for a few days, recover, rest. Then you can ask Cross-san if you can search again,"** she murmured as her voice softened into gentleness and her hand began to loosen on my wrist. I hesitated and weighed my options… I needed to hunt. I could prove to Kaien that I could stand up for myself against the Level E…

But… What use would I be to Kaien if I ended up getting myself killed because of a foolish action. The same action that Toga had taken.

I felt a faint pressure on my hand just for a moment but then I delicately shifted my hand from Kyoko's. The hand fell limply onto the bed without giving a twitch to let me know that it was still connected to a living body. I stared at his hand, watching the fingers remained curled as if to take a grip of my hand again… But I turned away from the hand anyway. There was nothing I could do now… And if Toga was asking for me…

That meant that there must be something he wanted to tell me. Something that I was dreading to hear.

Whether it was a harsh scolding for having saved Kyoko from an unavoidable demise or him begging me to reconsider what I had already told him, I didn't know… But either way, it wasn't going to be good. The nurse touched my shoulder and delicately turned me towards a doorway just on the other side of the room, the door tightly closed. Toga was on the other side of that door…

After pulling a heavy breath into my lungs, I walked towards the doorway with the nurse following me close behind. How was he feeling? What condition was he in? Was he dying, the same as Kyoko, and only managed to snatch a moment of strength to wake up, speak a few words… Only to pass out and quickly allow his body to die.

My hand hesitated on the doorknob, my palm pressed against the cold steel. I listened to Kyoko's heart monitor… Its rhythm didn't change from its slow, agonizing beats… What if that heart stopped beating? What if it was the moment that I passed through this doorway, unable to stay with him to the very end… I looked back and stared at that jumping line, jaggedly bouncing along, careless to the person who's heart it was reading.

The nurse's soft smile turned down into a light frown at my gaze before she looked back to the heart monitor. **"…I'll leave the door open so you can still hear it,"** she murmured softly and turned back to the monitor. She turned a few dials before turning up the volume of the monitor, letting the beeping come across stronger… As if it was faking the idea that his heart would grow stronger the louder that the beeps were. But it was just a lie… A lie I knew was going to fall apart.

There was nothing I could do for him. But it still hurts… Why?

Why does it still hurt…

I forced my gaze from the monitor screen and down to the floor until my gaze caught the sight of the sword that lingered in the corner. It was leaned against the wall, awaiting for its master to grip a hold of its handle again… Flecks of blood stained the perfect steel, but I knew that they didn't come from an enemy or any vampire… It was smeared on from Kyoko's bloody body. The steel wore its master's blood the same as any other, indifferent to Kyoko's suffering…

The nurse tapped my shoulder softly, as if to remind me that this was not the time to let the thoughts take over me. She was right… It wasn't. I had other things to worry about, and right now, that included Toga's health. I turned myself back to the door and grasped the handle once again. I turned the cold metal and heard the click of the door as it allowed me inside. The room lights were on inside, so he should still be awake… I peered into the room cautiously while preparing myself for whatever horror show I was about to see…

**"Sakura!"**

Toga's surprised yet relieved cry soon reached my ears the moment that I looked into the room. He was laying on a bed, the blanket pulled up over his shoulders but with his left arm resting on top of the blankets. He was slightly sat up with a couple of drips attached to his uninjured arm. A wide smile was across his face and he seemed to have been completely unscathed except for a couple of scratches on his neck which were already properly bandaged.

He was awake and alert… He didn't even seem to be in pain. Especially not when he immediately started to sit himself up and pull himself to the edge of the bed, as if to get up so he can greet me properly. I felt the color nearly wash out of my face as I rushed over to him and quickly grabbed a hold of his shoulders, pulling him back down into the bed. **"T-Toga, stay in bed! If you're hurt, you don't need to be moving around!"** I yelped but I couldn't hide the relief that trickled out of my voice.

He was alright… He was okay. He wasn't bleeding, injured or dying. The doctors must have made a mistake… Maybe they had been meaning that Kyoko had those serious injuries. Or… maybe they were talking about someone else entirely. That had to be it.

Toga's smile turned into a frown the moment that I pulled him back down into bed, as if he was upset that I was still making sure that he couldn't get himself killed by moving around too much. **"Sakura, I'm fine…"** he sighed but reluctantly shifted himself back into bed. The slim tubes that were attached to his arm shifted just slightly, but the needles were taped down to his arm to make sure that they wouldn't slip out so easily.

I soon found my place on his bed, sitting down beside him as he adjusted his sitting to make sure that he was still comfortable. The smallest smirk found my face but not for long as I heard the gentle beeping of the heart monitor… Kyoko's heart monitor was still going, and was just barely heard in the other room. I looked up and looked at the direction into the room but even as I craned my neck to catch a glimpse of the hunter's bed, I couldn't catch a glimpse.

**"…You brought him back, didn't you,"** the soft mumble came from beside me, and I didn't have to think twice to know just who was a little cranky at the moment. My body stiffened just slightly before I turned back to look at Toga. His ice blue eyes were locked on me, a knowing glint held deep in the stubborn gaze. The frown remained on his face before he let out a sigh and closed his eyes, resting his head back against the pillow.

Now I could see clearer just how he was… The perky Toga I had seen just moments ago had already passed, leaving in its place a wounded hunter. His face was pale and almost clammy from a loss of blood from some injury, and I could see the tiredness in his aching body.

For a moment, I felt pain lodge itself into my throat to see him like this… But then I reminded myself that this was his own fault. **"Of course I did. And I would have brought you back too if you hadn't run off like that,"** I muttered at him, but all he responded with was a soft grunt and that was it. I hesitated before I shifted closer to him as I scooted myself to sit beside his hips before I looked down to his legs.

Even if covered up by the blankets, I could still see the slight bump of the heavy cast still clamped down onto his leg. Who knows how much more damage he had done to his body than any injury he could have received…

The kind nurse soon walked to his bedside as I stared at the bump in the sheets and began to adjust the IV sacks that were leaking fluid into his veins. **"Sweetie, if you're in pain, just tell us, alright?"** she chirped in an attempt to brighten the mood, but Toga still only responded with a light shrugging of his shoulders.

My eyes were pulled back to his face and the pain lodged itself deep inside me again. He must be in pain… Even if it was his own fault, and even if him trying to argue with me had been the start of all of this, he was… still my friend. Or at least I still hoped. Who knows what he felt about me now… Maybe he hated me for letting him go off on his own like that and staying behind to help Kyoko, a man that Toga could easily see as his own enemy.

**"…You're not hurt, right?"** the murmur passed through the pale hunter's tight lips. The ice blue eyes opened to look back at me but were beginning to glaze over with tiredness. I could still see the soft worry that lingered, trying to fight against the tiredness that tugged at his bones so he could make sure that I was alright…

**"I'm fine…"** I assured him and soon shifted myself closer to his side. Well, that was at least a good sign… He still cared if I was hurt or not. That was one thing I didn't ruin today. **"How are you feeling?"** I asked him and awaited another shrug or a sigh or whatever pointless response he could come up with…

But then he hesitated.

His ice blue eyes drifted away from me and instead stared down at the bed. The nurse hesitated beside the bed, wondering if she could stay any longer before she soon began to busy herself with the IVs. It didn't seem like she was going to be willing to tell me what happened either… I blinked in faint surprise before I looked down at the bed sheets. They weren't stained with blood… What could have been so awful that he refused to tell me?

His right arm and shoulder, as well as the rest of his chest, remained delicately covered by the white blanket. I wondered if he was cold… But the room wasn't cold at all. In fact, it was pleasantly warm… He didn't need to be covered up.

**"…Silly, you'll overheat…"** I murmured in an attempt to change the subject when it appeared like he wasn't about to say a word about his own condition. I forced a faint smile to cross my face as I shifted myself closer and reached out to pull the white blanket back to give him a little bit of comfort from the heat that must be pooling under the blanket.

…But then Toga stiffened up, his ice blue eyes widening but didn't dare look back at me. At the same moment, the nurse gasped and seemed to pale several shades lighter. She reached across the bed in a heartbeat and grabbed onto my wrist firmly, quickly pulling my hand back. **"D-dear, he's perfectly fine… How about we go back to Kyoko, alright?"** she stammered and an obviously forced smile crossed her face but it trembled with her nervousness.

Now I knew something was wrong.

My heart leaped in my throat to try to choke me from saying a word as I stared at her face, trying to find a hint of a joke. She was trying to hide something from me. Something that was obviously wrong with Toga.

Toga's hand immediately moved up from the bed, reached out and… grabbed the nurse's wrist. **"…Don't,"** he murmured and his ice blue eyes closed once again. He didn't dare look at me or the nurse… Instead he rested his head back down in the pillow, letting it sink into the softness without a single strand of restraint.

**"T-Toga…"** I stuttered out his name as I stared at his face, praying that he was going to tell me that everything was fine, and that the nurse had nothing to worry about… But he said nothing. He just let his hand fall from the nurse's wrist and land down onto the white spread. I felt the nurse's hand on my wrist begin to loosen before falling away completely, allowing the nurse to shuffle back and away from the bed in an eerie silence.

…I thought about getting off of that bed, too, and leaving. I didn't want to see what had happened to him. I didn't want to know what that Level E had done… My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to picture how he had been when I stepped into the room, nearly bouncing off of the bed to greet me… But now he was reduced to a hunter with something so excruciatingly wrong with him that he couldn't even bear to say it aloud.

**"…Sakura, you need to see it,"** his voice echoed in my head but I didn't have a response. I just stared at the blanket, trying to piece together what was wrong. The doctors in the hallway… They said that there were slashes in his arm… To prepare for heavy bleeding… Something about his chest…

I prayed that there was nothing there that I needed to be worried about. I waited for him to suddenly chuckle, take his uninjured arm out from underneath the blanket and bonk me in the head, then chuckle about how worried I am about him all the time. But there was nothing.

I… pulled in as much courage as I could into my body. I reached out and grasped the corners of the white blanket… I slowly peeled it back away from his body…

…I don't know what I was expecting.

But what I saw… was worse than I could have ever comprehended.


	13. Chapter 12

It… was gone.

It was all gone.

I stared at the gauze that lined Toga's shoulder, the black stitching that I could see just barely underneath the thick gauze…

And then I stared at the empty space beside him. All gone…

I stared down at the space beside him, waiting for the veil to be lifted… I wanted him to stop playing this joke. I wanted him to stop whatever trick it took to cover up his arm and make it seem like it was gone. I just… wanted him to stop.

My hand lifted from my side and I reached out to touch the bed beside him, expecting to feel flesh underneath my hand instead… Maybe I was hoping that it was invisible. That this was some hunter's spell to let the arm heal. Yeah, that had to be it… A spell. A trick. This wasn't the truth.

But I didn't even feel my own hope as I reached down and touched just beside his gauzed shoulder… and felt the bedspread underneath my hand instead. No flesh. No arm. No wounds. Just… bed. For just a moment, I looked up to Toga's face and looked into the pale blue eyes. No deception laid in those gentle pools… Just… painful truth.

My hand searched on the bedspread for his missing arm, and I even lifted up the blanket just a little more to search for it. It had to be somewhere… It couldn't be gone. I pushed my hand underneath the blankets, searching desperately to touch his arm as my numbed mind tried to process what I had seen. It just couldn't be gone… This couldn't happen to him… Not to my friend. Not to Toga.

**"…Sakura?"** Toga murmured to try to pull me out of my numbed state and force me to realize what had happened. But I barely heard him. It was as if I was… sedated. My mind refused to let it sink in… It refused to acknowledge the sight I saw before me as I searched on the bed, ripping the blanket back to let me look.

Bandages were tightly wound around Toga's chest, some of them still faintly stained with blood. They curved around him from his shoulder down to his hips and most of the blood gathered in the center, from a few lines that raked down from his shoulder all the way to his stomach, raking down over and over… As if the vampire had tried to peel him like a grape, opening him from the center and peeling his skin back.

**"…Sakura, say something. Anything,"** his voice spoke again, but I couldn't answer back as I stared down at the bloodied bandages and then to his shoulder. I stared at the slight lump attached to his shoulder, with the shoulder blade still reaching out to grab a hold of the arm and place it back in its rightful place in its socket. But there was nothing there.

Just gauze.

Just… gauze.

There was only one way to make sure that this wasn't a cruel joke against me. Only one way to make certain that this was the truth… I reached out my trembling hand and pressed it down on the bed where his arm should rest and trailed it up slowly, moving it towards his shoulder. I waited to feel flesh hit my hand, but, yet again, there was nothing but empty space.

My heart pounded against my ribs as I kept moving my hand up and up… before it finally touched something. My fingertips pressed just slightly into the gauze… and I could feel his blood pulse underneath my hand, feeling the hot wound under my fingers. Toga cringed beside me and the lump moved in a desperate effort to pull itself away, but I didn't allow my hand to move.

Instead… I watched as crimson blood started to slip out of the black stitching. It started spreading through the white gauze like a rose blooming, exposing its beautiful crimson petals… But there were thorns. Those disgusting thorns that held the truth… The truth that was beginning to slowly spread through me just like the crimson as it dripped down from the edges of the gauze, trialing down before it started to stain the delicate white spreads…

Toga's arm was gone. It was really gone, all of it.

…I screamed.

I don't know why I did, but I screamed. I screamed so loud that it made Toga flinch and it even scared myself. I stared at that lump as I screamed. No words. Just a scream of realizing just what had happened to my friend.

**"S-Sakura, it's okay!"** Toga immediately tried to sooth me as his arm snaked its way around my waist and pulled me down onto his chest, onto his bloodied, wounded chest. My scream immediately broke off into a staggering sob, the pain and the shock doing everything it could to choke me. Hot tears rushed into my eyes as I stared at that lump, the gauze already starting to become saturated in his blood… What have I done to him. Why couldn't I have just stayed with him and not let him go on that stupid hunting mission alone!

**"H-how…!"** I choked out before the sobs claimed their hold on me again. A gentle 'shh' was all that came from Toga as his hand gingerly grasped the back of my head and turned it away, tucking my head underneath his chin so I wasn't able to see the devastating wound any longer. I felt his fingertips start to brush through my blond hair, stroking them softly as if to calm me down… But I wasn't the one that was hurt.

I wasn't the one laying in a hospital bed with my arm gone, never to come again.

His lips touched my forehead for a moment as the hot tears spilled over and rushed down my face. His fingertips continued to move through my hair, stroking it with increasing gentleness. **"…The doctors said that the Level E's clawing was too damaging to my arm. Most of the nerves had been severed, arteries were cut, and they weren't able to save it. They said it would be for the best…"** he murmured to me with a voice that was so calm that I couldn't believe that it was Toga's.

How could he possibly be so calm when this was his own arm he was talking about? His limb, the one that belonged to him… It wasn't my arm. I wasn't the one that was going to be handicapped for the rest of my life. And for Toga to be so calm after losing his arm… It was insane.

**"I'll be fine, Sakura… It happens."**

…It happens. Anger rushed inside me the moment that he said that it just _happens_. But it wasn't towards Toga… It was towards myself. If it wasn't for me letting him go, it wouldn't have had to happen…! **"I-it's not just fine, Toga!"** I tried to yell at him, but my voice cracked apart at the seams. His arm only tightened around me and his hand gripped my hair just for a moment before it relaxed and started to stroke it again just the same as before, as if I had never spoken.

**"Shh, Sakura…"** he cooed to me and I felt his lips press against my forehead again. But his soft voice didn't stop the hot tears from rushing down my cheeks and dripping down onto his bloodied bandages. I could feel the warmth of his wounds through my clothing, still stickied with blood… Maybe they were infected already. Maybe they were going to have to open him up, clean him from the inside out… Do horrible things to him…

I forced myself out of his weakened grip and sat myself up beside him. I tried to force my sobs back as I glared down at him, but my eyes were raw with pain and guilt. **"T-this didn't have to happen if I didn't stop you, Toga!"** I growled at him and just managed to keep my words from ending into another sob. My tears dripped down my cheeks and onto him in an unending wave, and I saw pain start to flicker across his face. Not for himself, but for me.

**"Sakura, this isn't your fault…! I didn't watch what I was doing and it got a hold of me!"** he tried to explain to me and the soft frown was crossing his face again. But that damn gentleness was coming over him again, the same as it always had when he was around me. But that gentleness… It was getting him killed.

**"Listen to me, Toga!"** I hissed with more rage than I had expected and Toga cringed at the tone of my voice and visibly sank his head down into the pillow. Knowing that I was going too far even when I wasn't about to stop myself, the nurse immediately grasped a hold of my arm and tried to pull me down from the bed, saying that I needed to give Toga time to recover and rest, but I pulled my arm out of her grip. I wasn't done yet. I hadn't even started.

I forced in a deep breath before I made my eyes narrow at him. **"I should have stopped you, I should have done something! And now you're like this! This doesn't have to happen to you, Toga!"** I growled but my words began to choke at the end. I took in a shuddering breath and tried to continue. **"That should be me on the hospital bed, not you! The Level E should have gotten me, not you!"**

"Sakura, I-"

"No, you don't understand!" The sobs were creeping back up my throat again and the hot tears once again washed down my face in another torrent. **"Everything would be fine if you didn't care about me this much, Toga! You wouldn't be here right now, your arm gone, not even able to get out of bed…! And what about being a hunter? I ruined it for you, I ruined it! It's all my f-fault…!"** I broke by the end of my words when I couldn't see Toga any more because of the tears that masked my vision. I let myself break into the sob that suffocated me while Toga remained in his silence.

**"…I-I want you t-to… Hate me…! Hit me, kick me… hate me…! I d-did this to you, I deserve it…!"** I choked on my words because I knew they were true. If Toga never liked or loved me, he wouldn't have been distracted… Then Kyoko wouldn't have been hurt… I wouldn't have snapped at him… And Toga wouldn't have gone off on his own after that Level E.

This was because of me… It's my fault…

It's… my fault…

The gentle arm soon moved around my shoulders and pulled me back into Toga's embrace, one that I nearly pushed myself away from until I felt him stiffen as I pushed against his cut chest. There I go, hurting him again… It seems like it could be the only thing I could do to Toga.

I heard his murmurs but I couldn't make out the words apart from my sobs… I even heard the nurse rush out of the room beside the bed, as if Toga had scared her by saying something that she didn't need to hear… But I didn't know. All I knew was that I was hurting Toga… My Toga… My best friend…

His hand started to stroke through my hair again, and I felt his fingers snag onto the crusted blood that remained in my hair. I thought it was Kyoko's blood… But I didn't know anymore.

**"…I could never hate you, Sakura…"**

"You're all I have… all I wanted…"

Some of his words barely cut through the sound of my own sobbing as he once again tucked my head underneath his chin with increasing gentleness… His hand eventually moved from my hair and down my back, rubbing it gently under his hand. I ruined Toga's life… and he couldn't even hate me for it. But maybe he would soon change his mind when he realizes that he couldn't hunt… That he couldn't go through his normal daily life the same as he wished… How this will change his life forever…

Then maybe he could hate me.

**"…Sakura. Look at me, please."**

I didn't want to… All he was going to say to me was how it wasn't my fault and that was the last thing I wanted him to do. I didn't want to hear him lie to me… Not to make me feel better. Not when he was this injured and when it was because of me. I childishly shook my head as I hid my tear-stained face into his chest, trying to avoid touching the bloody bandages.

But his hand soon cradled my cheek, even if awkwardly with the way he was holding onto me, and tilted my head back up to look at him. My tear-filled amethyst eyes met the soft blues as I looked up at him and saw the softest smirk touch his lips. **"…I can't blame you for any of this, Sakura. It's just impossible… Do you want to know why?"** he murmured, his hand remaining on my cheek to make sure that my head couldn't be turned away.

I remained in my silence as my tears glided down my cheek and started to touch his hand, and his thumb soon caressed the tears away from staining my cheeks farther. I knew that I didn't have to answer him anyway… He would already know what my answer was going to be. His thumb glided over my wet cheek gently before a soft chuckle came from his thin lips.

**"…Because I love you, and I could never hate you. Even if you killed me, I couldn't be angry. No matter what happens to me, even if I'm dead by tomorrow, that will never change. …Alright?"**

…He had never told me that he loved me before. But I wasn't shocked. By the kisses he would steal away from me whenever he could, it was more than obvious about his feelings towards me, even if he thought he was clever enough to hide his feelings. But even hearing the words made my heart skip a beat in my chest, even as it was still weighed down with grief and agony.

**"B-but Toga… You know we c-"** I tried to start but his finger soon crossed over my lips and cut off my words before I was able to finish speaking.

**"I know, I know… We can't do anything now, and you're not ready."** he murmured with his words still holding a gentle tone, a tone that nearly melted away my grief… But not quite. His thumb brushed across my cheek to catch the tears that sometimes slid down from my eyes as the gentleness in his blue eyes grew before he leaned himself up and delicately kissed away a tear on my other cheek.

,b"…But I already told you that I would wait for you. And I'll wait for you forever… I'll wait until you're ready for this, no matter how long it takes. And I'll wait for you to tell me when it is, and I won't force it on you any more,"/b he murmured softly into my ear, even as his voice began to tremble with his own exhaustion and weakness. He needed rest more than anything now, yet he refused to sleep until he had soothed me…

I felt his lips kiss my cheeks again and they quickly pulled back to resist himself from falling into temptation, as if he could be able to act on it now. His face moved back to look up at me and a smile crossed his face… Yet it was so faint that I thought that it was my own imagination. But for just a moment… there was a flicker of emotion across his blue eyes. It was of… Dread. As if he knew something that I didn't.

But he didn't seem like he was about to tell me. His hand on my cheek soon tucked my head back under his chin and his arm wrapped back around my waist and held me against his bloody and bandaged body. I tried to shift myself to keep myself from touching his wounds but his arm held firm. His hand grasped onto the white blanket that I had thrown off of him and tucked it back over our bodies while making sure that it covered up the space where his arm should have been, as if making sure that I couldn't break into hysterics again at the sight of it.

He kissed the top of my head in gentleness, his hand already beginning to stroke my back as it found its place back onto my body and I heard his head sink back into the pillow. **"…Just promise me that… whatever happens, try to be happy. …No matter what happened." **…Happened? Did he mean his arm?

I didn't answer him back and I soon fell into my silence and Toga fell into his own. Soon I heard his breathing soften as he slipped into gentle sleep, a sleep where the pain of his wounds would not be able to reach him. I hesitated but then closed my eyes and listened to the silence…

…But then I realized something.

There wasn't supposed to be silence.

My entire body jolted with alarm as my eyes flashed back open. My heart rammed against my ribs as I searched for the sound that I should have been listening to the entire time… But it wasn't there.

Kyoko's heart monitor… wasn't making a sound.

I sprang up from that bed faster than I had in my entire life. I had pushed Toga's arm to the side without giving myself a single moment to check if I had stirred him awake or not and jumped down onto the floor. That had to be why the nurse had suddenly left…! She heard Kyoko's heart monitor go dead before I even had the chance! Now I could hear that long, monotone beep, telling me that Kyoko's weakening heart had gone silent once and for all.

This was what Toga knew… He heard Kyoko's heart go silent, yet he didn't have the heart to tell me that. He didn't want me to find out that my friend was dead…

_'No, Kyoko, please! Not you, too!'_ I wailed mentally as I rushed towards the door with blinding speech and threw the door open. I expected to see the doctors hovering over Kyoko's corpse, trying to shock him back to life…

I saw the doctors as they scrambled around the room, each of their faces pale.

I saw the flatlined monitor as it read that there was no heartbeat left.

…I also saw the empty bed.

The window pulled open, the curtains billowing out into the blackened surroundings just outside the building.

Kyoko… was gone.


	14. Chapter 13

**"Kyoko! Kyoko, where are you?"**

My calls echoed in the night air as I searched for my idiotic friend. Snow was starting to drift down from the sky again and it blanketed over the tracks that I had been following. Now there was no sign of the injured hunter… Not even blood spotted the snow to give me a trail.

How could Kyoko be this stupid! After barely surviving one attack from the Level E, he decided that it would be perfectly fine to go out to who knows where! What if he was already lying dead somewhere, in a pool of his own blood, his body savaged and mutilated by a curious vampire? I just couldn't let that happen, not after I knew what the damage had done to Toga.

I pulled the coat I managed to grab tighter over my body to brace myself against the icy winds but I knew that it was almost no use. The winds had grown harsher while I was inside and the snow was getting thicker… Kyoko would freeze to death if he didn't come home soon.

**"Kyoko, please!"** I called again even as the wind buffered my voice. He might not be able to hear me anymore. He could already be too far gone for me to find out in this weather. I didn't have long to search… I had to use the doctor's frantic searching to my own advantage to slip out without them seeing me. But once someone realized that I was gone, they were sure to tell the Headmaster. That could mean that both of us would be expelled in a heartbeat, even when I was just trying to drag his ass back…

A worried groan slid from me as my steps shuffled through the deepening snow, already starting to lose sight of the academy behind me. How far could he have possibly gone? I cried out his name and heard it echoed in the dark forest that surrounded me, but nothing answered me back. Not Kyoko… Not even a vampire.

I searched through the dark forest even as the howling wind attempted to chill me to the bone. He was going to be colder than I was. He didn't even have a coat… He might not even have his shirt! And I couldn't leave him out in the aching cold…! But as the shadows lengthened and the feeling was already leaving my hands and my feet, I was beginning to realize that this was ridiculous. He might have gone back to the infirmary by now… Even Kyoko would have smartened up once he realized how bitterly cold it was outside.

Plus, I needed to get back to Toga. He might have realized that I was gone by now… I couldn't just leave him alone. So as I prayed that both Kyoko and Toga would be there to greet me the moment that I stepped through the front doors of the building, I turned…

…And heard a branch crack.

There was someone here.

My body stiffened as I stared back into the dark woods and strained to hear another sound, but the howling wind was silencing any little movement I might have caught. **"…H-hello?"** I squeaked, and was almost immediately ashamed by the meek sound in my voice. I was a hunter, not a mouse! …A hunter in a forest that might be teeming full of vampires… A vampire who still had only a piece of string as a weapon.

I took a shuffling step back as I shivered in my coat, while hoping my shivering was only from the cold. If someone was out there… Then I was a sitting duck. I felt my heart quicken as I took another step back away from the darkening woods, my eyes searching for a figure. It could be the vampire… Or worse, it could be Kaien Cross. He could have started to search for me and now found me… And I didn't know which I would fear worse. The vampire or Kaien's wrath.

**"G-go away!"** I yelped, even if it was pathetically. But I wasn't about to become a vampire's midnight meal, or Kaien's scratching post. I slid a few steps back and prepared myself to run into the woods until my eyes caught a ghostly figure…

It was tall and it was nearly hidden by the thickening shadows. But it was starting to move… And it was moving towards me. What do I do, what do I do?! Do I attack? Or do I run?!

I gulped down the fear that rushed up my throat and trying to make me panic as the figure moved towards me through the darkness, unable to let me see its features. It had to be the vampire… I had to kill it now before it had the chance to kill me! Without letting common sense plead to me, I reached into my pocket and grabbed the wire that was still coiled deep into my pocket. My amethyst eyes tightened as I stared down the beast, reminding myself that this… creature could have killed Kyoko. That it was responsible for Toga losing his arm. This was all because of that creature!

A snarl of fury surprisingly tore from my chest as I rushed through the snow and tightened my hands on the coiled wire. I just had to wrap it around its neck and pull… Hopefully it would decapitate the vampire and destroy it with just one blow. My numbed feet pounded in the snow as I sprang to attack it, preparing for its claws to cut through my flesh like it cut through my friends…

**"Sakura, what the hell are you doing out here?"**

The voice froze my steps in seconds, standing merely feet away from the ghostly figure. It couldn't be… I peered into the darkness, my anger not yet spent as my hands tightened on the wire as I searched for more details to the creature… And then I saw the cobalt eyes glowing faintly in the darkness, shadowed only by the snowy hair that nearly blended into the snow that fell to the earth.

**"…Kyoko, you asshole!"** I blurted out faster than I could catch the words and immediately regretted them as the hunter let out a long sigh. I could just barely hide the relief that swamped over me… He was alright. He was probably cold as hell, but alright. Not wounded, not bleeding… …Or at least he would be alright until I could get my hands on him and choke the life out of him. **"What the hell were you thinking? Going out here by yourself? You know we can't leave the training grounds!"**

"Settle down…" Kyoko sighed wearily as he started to walk closer to me, pulling himself out of the shadows. And now I could see that his condition… Was not as great as I had first imagined.

He shuffled towards me like a man half-dead. Kyoko seemed to be dragging himself along the ground… And when I had first thought that he was wearing a white shirt, I realized that his skin was instead pure white, as white as a ghost. The bandages that were wrapped around his stomach and chest were ripped up and splattered with blood while blood was already soaking where his original wound was.

He was gripping his sword in one hand, with the entire blade bathed in blood. Scratches were scattered across his body and bruises clotted his skin as well. He was shivering faintly from the cold, even though he should already be frozen where he stood from the coldness around them. His eyes seemed to be staring right through me, as if he really was dead.

But the smallest smirk was still across his face…

Kyoko staggered towards me as I rushed towards him to help him but he didn't seem to care to move any faster to help me. But just as I reached out to touch his shoulders to steady him, his cobalt eyes rolled back just slightly and he slumped down against my body like deadweight. **"K-Kyoko!"** I gasped in surprise as he slumped down and struggled to hold him up, praying that his wounds weren't severe, but one look at his paling skin told me that the cuts and scrapes he just gained did nothing to help his condition.

The elite grunted just slightly as he fought to keep his consciousness and struggled to remain on his own feet. He pressed his clenched hand against my shoulder to keep himself upright, his knuckles digging into my skin. Biting back a retort to force him off of me, knowing that he probably wasn't trying to make me uncomfortable, I grasped onto his curled up fist and tried to give him as much support as I could.

The hand tightened into a firmer ball, as if refusing to let me grasp it, but then the fingers began to unwind to clutch my fingers. I felt something thin like sand fall across my skin… In surprise, I looked down to his hand and saw the charcoal ash slipping from his palm and begin to gather onto the snow.

The Level E…

He killed the Level E.

My eyes widened partially in amazement but also in shock. He went out all this way… Just to kill the Level E!

**"B-baka!"** I scorned him the moment that I saw the ash trailing out from his hand. He would go into the freezing cold, without permission, while still heavily wounded just to kill that one vampire! What if it tried to kill him more than it already had? What if he gets expelled if he gets caught outside of the training hall?** "You know that you shouldn't have gone out by yourself in this condition! You could have died! …You could still die!"**

"You're welcome," the mutter slipped from his pale lips as his cobalt eyes cracked open again to look back at me. The emotionless mask over the cobalt flickered away just slightly to let a faint sheen of pride take its place. This was his first kill… This was a milestone in the road of becoming a hunter for him, but it wasn't one that he should have taken while in his frail condition.

**"Yeah, yeah… Just let me get you inside…"** I muttered to him, hiding a twinge of worry inside me as well as I could. At least he finished the mission that neither of us could have done… I clenched my numbed hand around his to help him stay on his feet, wishing that I might be able to feel warmth in his skin. But after who knows how long in the bitter cold, the feeling was nearly gone. The elite slowly pulled himself back to his feet once he revived and began the slow stagger back to the building with me…

Silence consumed both of us as my head began to spin once again. What do I do now… Do I take him straight to Kaien Cross, rat him out that he had been idiotic enough to leave the grounds to go after the vampire, and ignore the fact that I broke the rule as well? …Or I could just take him to the infirmary, drop him into the care of the doctors, and go back to Toga. …Strangely, none of those answers seemed to suffice.

My thoughts quickly numbed into exhaustion that ached on my bones. It had already been a very long day… One that I wished to forget for an eternity. This morning, Toga and I had been sitting on the bed, me doodling on his cast… But now, that felt like a lifetime away. Today was my first taste of what the real life of a hunter was like… And it sat bitter in my mouth, tangled with the salty taste of blood. Now Toga had lost his arm… Kyoko was still gravely injured, even as he fought to hide it as he kept up my pace (but just barely)… And now…

**"…Kid, wake up,"** the raspy mutter came into my ear, reawakening me to the snowy landscape around me while dragging a half-dead man through it. I turned to look back at Kyoko as I still held onto his hand to give him some support, even though he seemed to be doing everything in his power to keep from using me as a third leg. His cobalt eyes were just barely open and a milky glaze was starting to overcome them again… I could see his exhaustion, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

My eyes hardened at that word 'kid' again. But now wasn't the time to rant and rave about how I was grown up, that I wasn't a kid anymore… Especially since the tears I had shed for Toga and possibly for Kyoko were more than likely frozen onto my face. **"I am awake, baka…"** I half growled at him, even if it had grown soft. The smirk tugged on the corner of his lips again at my response but it fell away just as fast.

He heaved a soft sigh between his ragged breaths and I felt his weight lean against me once again… But then he pulled himself up just as he realized that his control on his body was slipping. His gaze pulled away from mine as his head hung before a few soft words passed his bloodstained lips.** "…Now what are you going to do with me."**

…What am I going to do with him. What am I even going to do next at all?

No matter how hard I wished to just crawl into a corner and forget this day could ever be imagined, I knew better. I knew that I couldn't take him to the infirmary… He would be snatched away by Cross and probably expelled at the second. But taking him to Cross himself would be no different. So instead… I had to do something quite the opposite. Something that might not alter what was to come, but it would prolong his fate long enough for him to recover. And… probably my own fate as well. I left the campus. I would pay the consequences.

**"…If you weren't stupid enough to leave the infirmary, I wouldn't have to do anything,"** I scolded softly, but I continued to drag him along anyway. Now his weight was pressing more and more to my shoulder, and he wasn't moving away. A jolting thought rushed through me as I realized just how slow we were moving… He was still wounded, and probably frozen to where he stood. If I didn't get him inside, and fast, he would be a goner.

So I… picked up the pace. A soft grumble came from him as he nearly tripped on his own frozen feet but I pulled him along anyway. It must be funny to watch us… Two frozen people, alone in the snowy tundra, dragging ourselves to a safety we might not stay in for long. …Whoever thought it was funny must have a ridiculously dark sense of humor.

**"I'm not going to tell on you,"** I began with a sigh and reminded myself how much I sounded like a kindergartener again with the statement. I could see the building in my sight, blocked just slightly with the trees. I could see the glow of a single room through the window, the light still on. I pulled onto Kyoko's frozen body to drag him towards the hopeful safety I had in mind and didn't hear a complaint against me.

As I drew closer, I peered into the room and saw the three beds. The one in the corner, pushed so far back that the owner of the other two beds could reach it, and the two laying nearly side by side. This was going to be an idiotic way of hiding from Cross but it was the only option we had other than the bitter cold…

**"We're hiding in plain sight,"** I finished just as we reached the window just large enough for us to slide through once it was open. Now I was thankful that Toga was always too forgetful to lock it closed… Because I soon reached down and grasped the latches hard and tugged the window open. Snow spilled down onto the carpet and a few troublesome flakes floated their way inside as well, but I couldn't have cared less.

**"…That's stupid,"** Kyoko muttered his disapproval, but his words were slurred… He didn't have any other options, and neither did I. So I slid myself into the room first and delicately helped the wounded hunter in as well. I looked towards the door and saw that it was closed, reminding myself to lock it in case Cross decides to burst in at any moment.

But I threw one more look out the window, hoping that the snowy landscape outside wouldn't soon be my new home… So I grasped the window, yanked it down, and sealed my fate.


	15. Chapter 14

**"Watch it…"**

"Quit complaining and just let me help…!"

I groaned in exasperation as I held the dripping wet rag in my hand, my fierce amethyst eyes glaring back into the cobalts. It had been an hour since I had dragged his corpse into our room and there had been no sign of Cross… Maybe no one had told him that Kyoko had disappeared in the fear of his wrath? Either way, it gave us more time to at least patch wounds and warm our bodies.

No more than a heartbeat after I had pulled Kyoko into the room, he had already collapsed… straight down into my own bed. At first I was scorned and thought about dragging his ass into his own bed so I could curl up in the warmth and comfort of my own blankets. But the selfish thought had quickly fled the moment I heard the ragged breathing again, choked by his own weakness. His skin had been as white as the snow outside, changed only by a few blue patches and a splatter of blood here and there.

So I… let him have the bed. I had wrapped him up in a few of his heavier blankets that were on his bed and tried to avoid staining them in his blood, but I soon realized that it was a fruitless attempt. I could see the crimson streaks in the fabric from his multiple wounds but I didn't care as long as he would stay warm… I had wrapped myself in my own blankets to keep my own body from freezing and it didn't take long before I could feel my hands and feet again. That was what I was more than thankful for…

I could hear the hum of the microwave in the corner of the room, the one we would use to heat up our meals if we were too busy in training to grab something fresh. I was attempting to make hot chocolate for both of us while I tried to tend to Kyoko's wounds, but I knew that I would somehow mess it up.

…Kinda like how I was messing up when trying to tend to Kyoko's wounds. **"Would you just let me see it?"** I muttered as I stared down at Kyoko's stomach which was covered by blankets, much like the rest of his body. I had already cleaned out his other cuts with the warm water soaked in the rag and I already checked for broken bones, even when he claimed that he was completely fine… But he refused to let me see his stomach wound.

The cobalt eyes tightened on me as I shifted closer to his stomach on the bed, even if awkwardly because of the blankets that surrounded my smaller body, cocooning it much like Kyoko's body. I heard a soft swear slip from his still-pale lips but I ignored it. At least he was talking again… In the last hour, he wouldn't even move and barely shivered without a word passing from his lips. He acted like he was dying once again… But maybe I had pulled him back from death just at the right moment.

**"If you don't let me see it, your bandages are going to get filthy and you'll get infected and I'll have to go find the nurse,"** I threatened for the fifth time in a row. I saw his cobalt eyes roll for the fifth time as well as he refused to leave his blanket cocoon even for a moment. I let the exasperation that I was suffering escape from me in a soft sigh and took in another breath to ask again. But then the microwave's timer dinged, alerting me that our hot chocolate was hopefully done.

**"…Stubborn ass,"** I muttered under my breath as I started to shift the blankets out from around my warming body and let them pool onto the bed and the floor. I was warm enough anyway to live without them… The rag soon was tossed back into the basin of warm water I had been using for his wounds and also to try to warm him and lifted myself up from the bed. I crossed the room with no hesitation and knelt myself down beside the microwave, all while trying to ignore that empty bed that was sat so close to the machine.

Toga was in the infirmary still… And I didn't expect him to come out for a very long time. Days, weeks… Maybe even longer. What would happen to him after he was released? Kaien wouldn't dare try to train a disabled man… And Toga couldn't go home. After the stories he would tell me about his broken family back at home, if there was even a home left, I was more than sure that he would rather stay in the infirmary with needles shoved up his remaining arm than go home.

My thoughts continued to wander as I pulled out the two mugs that held the piping hot chocolate inside. I pushed the door shut with the back of my hand as I carefully got back to my feet and turned back to the bed. Kyoko was already starting to shift himself up to sit up, even if it was painfully slow. I thought about telling him to lay back down, but I knew he would refuse. His damn stubbornness was almost as bad as Toga's, if not worse.

The mug clinked just slightly as I rested it down on the nightstand and set its twin beside it. **"…If you want it now, you can go ahead, but it's going to be hot,"** I warned and its only response was a grumble. Kyoko wasn't a talker… But he was at least communicating with me now more than he ever had done before. Maybe along with unfreezing his arms and legs, I was finally cracking into that hardened heart of is… But just barely.

I delicately picked up his mug and glanced back to Kyoko and saw that he was already starting to shift his arms out from underneath the cocoon of blankets. He was probably hungry as well, but I needed to tend to his stomach before I even attempted to give him something to eat. The last thing I wanted was to take him to the infirmary because some of the delicate organs and stitching had torn because I forced something down his throat.

**"Careful…"** I warned him again, softer this time, as his hands peaked out from the dark blue blankets. They were white… But they were no longer blue. It was at least some improvement and it meant that the fear of him losing his fingers or his hands wasn't possible. The last thing I needed today was to have another person start losing their limbs… I passed the mug into his trembling hand, careful to keep him from touching the hot glass but part of me knew that his hands would still be too numb to feel it.

**"I'm not dying, damn it…"** he grunted just slightly at my warnings and he soon sank back into the bed. While biting back maybe the sixth sigh of the hour, I sat myself down on my bed beside his cocooned body and looked down into the dark chocolate liquid inside the cup. Father taught me how to make hot chocolate when he still had been alive… He always called it his 'secret recipe', even though we both know he just doubled the chocolate powder.

But on the frosty nights when he would come home from a hunt or from work, he would make a mugful for me and my mother. It was… one of the few happy memories that I had left of my father. It had been so long since his passing that I barely remembered his face, as if it was just a distant dream rather than a true person.

A choking/coughing sound beside me pulled me from my fantasy, followed by a croak; [b]"T-that's fucking hot!"[/b] …Someone didn't listen to me once again, but that was coming as less and less of a surprise.

My amethyst eyes rolled at his spluttering cough and I looked back at him, trying to keep a straight face, but my amusement warmed my body. **"Told yah, baka…"** I chuckled, surprising myself with the slight tone of warmth in my voice. The cobalt glare that fired against me should have scared me… But I was growing use to the glares. He never did anything to harm me, lately. Ever since that night maybe a month ago, when I probably deserved to be shoved against the door when I saw him… nude… he had softened. The glares were becoming less terrifying and less dangerous…

**"S-shut up…"** he choked as he managed to swallow the steaming hot chocolate and he bared his carefully sharpened teeth at me, yet I refused to flinch like the way I had done so many times before. I had wondered just why his teeth were sharpened… Maybe it was a destructive fetish of his, to try to morph his own body into a monster. Maybe those scars were all from his own claws.

I just gave a light smirk back at his scowl, which immediately confused him as his slightly cut lips fell back over his teeth. A grumble rose in his throat but he didn't dare speak his words aloud as he looked back down into his mug, as if his cold gaze could cool it down by itself.

**"…Are you going to let me look at your stomach, now?"** I asked him, now the sixth time. Who knows why I bothered to keep track now. I knew that over and over he was just going to growl at me, tell me to fuck off, or add a few other course words in his sentences.

The grumble came again, but softer, and he didn't look back at me. …Well… He didn't say no. It was a start. Taking the opportunity of his sour mood fading for just a moment, I set the mug back down on the nightstand and inched my way closer to his cloaked body. My pale hands reached over and grasped the edge of a few blankets still tightly wrapped around his body and prepared for his hand to slap mine away, but all I heard was another grumble. Still again, it wasn't a 'no'.

Testing my luck as far as I could, I carefully began to pull away the blankets from his stomach while trying to keep the blankets from falling away from the rest of his body. His chest and stomach were the only places that I had yet to look over… It was also the most dangerous place for him to have injured. After bleeding so much from his stomach wound and having so much damage, who knows how far the extent of the damage will go.

Soon I saw the bandages that were wrapped tightly around his torso, trailing up just underneath his shoulders all the way down to his hips, covered by the bloodstained pants. The once white bandages were stained deeply with red but, much to my relief, the stains were beginning to dry. The wounds had stopped bleeding… But whether that was from him starting to recover or the lack of blood I wasn't sure.

As delicately as I could, to prevent hurting Kyoko any more than he already was, I picked up a pair of scissors I had already set on the nightstand and began to snip away the bandages. Kyoko stiffened underneath my hand once but he soon steeled himself against me to prevent himself from stiffening again. He still was trying to play off being unhurt from all of this, but I knew he was lying… He always played himself off as being unhurt from all of this even when he had more than a right to be howling in pain.

I peeled each bandage off slowly even as they were sticky against his wounds. I expected to see the disgusting white pus underneath the bandages, seeping up from the wounds and about to explode at any pressure. I expected to see a gaping wound in his stomach, enough to where I could push my hand through the hole and touch the bed on the other side, much like the Level E had.

But instead… The gaping wound I had envisioned was nothing of the sort. Instead, the skin had already begun to stretch itself over to try to cover the wound once again, the skin dreadfully thin to the point that I could see through it on its edges. The deepest part of the hole gathered in the center of his stomach to where I could see the muscle fiber by fiber beginning to replace itself, but slower. Through that, I saw the soft organs, something that made me want to retch… But even those looked… Normal. Black stitching was still pierced into them but some of the stitching was dissolving.

He was… healing. Hunters were known to be much faster healers than normal humans, but at this rate? I stared at the wound, dumbfounded to the point that I barely felt the sickness of staring at the gore. I blinked, and then blinked again to try to clear my vision. There must be some mistake… The wound would have had to be at least four or five inches across, if it hadn't ripped his entire stomach open. I should still be able to see the spine and the ripped chunks of organs…

A tap on my shoulder snapped me out of my trance and I immediately looked back up at Kyoko to see that… there was a smirk across his face. I blinked one more time and looked back down at the healing wound, then back up at him. **"…How…?"** I began but then realized that I had no clue of what to say. What kind of explanation was there to the rapidly healing wound?

**"…You're forgetting that I'm still an elite, Sakura."**

…Of course. How could I have forgotten.

A soft groan of irritation slipped from me as I nearly faceplanted into his stomach, something I would have immediately regretted if I had not restrained myself. His damn elite blood… With the vampire genes strong in his veins, it would have sped up his healing to at least twice, if not three times, the strength of a normal hunter. It explained why his ass wasn't frozen in the snow, or how he didn't die on the way back to the grounds.

**"You could have told me that a lot sooner!"** I grumbled my irritation as I tried to give him the hardest glare I could muster but I couldn't hide my relief. The smirk only widened on his face and it turned almost… playful. His eyes met mine and just for a heartbeat, I saw warmth. A soft chuckle came from his tight lips just for a moment

…But as if he realized his mistake to letting his guard slide, his face paled and the playful smirk was wiped clean from his face. The chuckle stopped short and his gaze snapped away from mine. The warmth was sucked away faster than I could bring it back, leaving the cold cobalts in their place. **"…You should have remembered,"** he grunted and he slowly began to shift his body to the edge of the bed, forcing my hands away from his wounded stomach.

**"H-hey…"** I stammered in my confusion as I stared at his face, wishing for the warmth to come back just for a moment. I had cracked into him, just this once… But now he sealed himself away from me once again. It was like an endless game of cat and mouse, and my mouse was getting away once more.

Sticky silence overcame the room as I stared at his face, hoping for his cobalts to meet mine again, but they didn't dare to turn towards me. After letting the silence lengthen for just a little longer, I let out a sigh and turned my head away. I looked to the nightstand to the roll of bandages that gathered on the wood and quietly picked them up. I already knew better than to expect him to speak the rest of the night… He always had a limit on how much he said to me or to Toga. He refused to let me crack into that barred heart of his.

I began the long task of cleaning out the dirtied wounds and checking for infections as I ran the damp rag over his opened wound. He flinched only once but let me resume his work without any complaints. I delicately brushed some dirt from the healing edges of his wound and let the sound of the rag crossing over his delicate skin be the only sound in the room…

…But I just had to break the silence again. It was just too disturbingly silent for me… So I had to pick a subject. What should I ask him about… Why he protected me? Why did he always seem to be so grumpy at me? …Or maybe I could ask him something else, something that I've already asked him dozens if not hundreds of times before.

**"…What happened to you, Kyoko? With the scars, the bruises…"** I asked carefully and my amethyst eyes drifted back to his face only to realize with a jolt that his cobalts were staring down at me. But they were… clouded. The sharpness was fading just slightly and his eyes could only hold mine for just a moment before they drifted down to the bloodstained bandages.

Silence overcame Kyoko as he stared down at the blankets, as if he was really considering what I had said… Hope built up in my chest but I almost immediately shoved it back down. I had been hopeful too many times and had it be crushed… I refused to let it happen to me again. So I stared back down at his wound and delicately began to wipe the dirt that collected on an edge. It was going to take a while to clean the wound… Meaning it was going to take forever in the silence that overcame them.

The hunter pulled a heavy sigh into his lungs, his stomach shifting just slightly underneath my tender hand, before he let it out just as slowly. And then I got an answer I didn't expect, one that I didn't think I would receive in a thousand years…

**"…Maybe it's about time… for someone to know… what happened."**


	16. Chapter 15

_-Kyoko-_

…I guess it all started when I was very young. From the moment I could walk and talk, I was being forced to excel in the most ridiculous of ways. Walk like this, talk like this… Walk faster. Run faster. Everything had to be better than any other child that I had around me… as if I ever saw any. Everything had to be better… Because I was supposed to be better.

Because I was a Kiryuu, better than any other hunting family God could create.

…Or at least that was what I was taught.

By the time I was four, training had already begun. It was to a point that I never remembered a moment where I wasn't… training. For a normal hunter child, training wouldn't come until they were ten or eleven, maybe even later. But for an elite, apparently, we were to be born ready to hunt. If there was a slightest chance of the few elites that remained to do our duties, we had to start young.

But it wasn't my parents that trained me… No, I never saw my parents. Once my training began, I was pulled from my parents' control. …I still don't know if they were upset to see me go or if they were more concern on producing more hunters before their life would be over.

Elites… were known to take risks. Risks equaled danger. Danger… equaled death.

But once training had began, I was quick to realize that the exciting world filled with adventure that I faintly remembered my mother telling me once was… nothing of the sort. Training was excruciating from the start. They said I had been softened by my parents, but I barely remembered the reason why. All I knew was that I was in pain. It was a pain that… no four year old should ever have to feel.

There was one thing that I learned from day one. A hunter should never let their own feelings get in the way. A hunter must be a hardened killing machine… That was exactly what they were turning me into. A machine. A machine intended to kill vampires and nothing else…

The punishments by far were the worse things. When I would answer a question wrong, when I would cry out in pain, my trainers would stop, take me up against the wall and press my stomach against it. They would lift up my shirt, exposing my back, take the thick leather belt…

…Now the memories are starting to come back… as if I wanted to let any of them pour through me again.

**"…Hey, Kyoko, if… you don't want to tell me, that's okay… um…"**

My hardened cobalts blinked and looked up from where they were staring at the bed and met the soft amethysts that looked back at me, brimming with worry. I… hadn't said a word? The memories must have overtaken me again… I tried to shake off the dark memories as much as I could and shook my head to clear the thoughts.

**"…I was just thinking,"** I spoke gruffly, forcing my voice to harden like it had so many times before, forcing every ounce of emotion away. Emotions get you killed… That lesson still lingered in the back of my mind every second of my life from the moment I stepped into that training room. I snapped my gaze away from the amethyst eyes before I could allow myself to get locked in her gaze once again.

Instead I stared at a bloodstain in the grayish blankets, the crimson still glistening softly but was drying. It wasn't the first time that I had seen so much blood… And it wouldn't be the last.

I heard the soft movements on the bed as Sakura slowly inched her way closer to my wrapped body, as if expecting that I wouldn't be able to hear her. She took a hesitant breath into her lungs before she let out in a quiet sigh. **"…Here, how about we… play a game, alright?"**

…A game? Now what bright idea was rolled up her sleeve?

The dark eyes flashed back up to her face, and they nearly scorched into her, but I managed to hold myself back. A game… The word brought a soft flicker of a memory into my mind. That first day of kindergarten… She wanted to play… a game. But hunters weren't designed to play games. They were created to kill. To maim. To destroy. A game was… idiotic.

The young woman didn't flinch under my stare but instead positioned herself to sit in front of me, the rag still held in her hand. She hadn't stopped cleaning my wound, and I was surprised that I barely felt the pain. I must still be numb… It might be the only thing I was still numb to in my life. Sometimes pain. It happened so often that I just… adjusted.

Sensing that my silence wasn't about to waver, Sakura delicately brushed a little dirt from my wound and pulled her gaze up to mine. **"I mean… A question game. If I ask you a question, you get to ask me one. We take turns… And we keep asking questions until one of us doesn't want to anymore. …Okay?"**

"…Whatever," my chilled words responded to her and I stared down into the hot chocolate that was still clasped in my hands. The steam billowed out of it softly, touching my face and attempting to warm it, but it did nothing for my… chilled mood. I slowly leaned myself back in the blankets, resting my back against the headboard yet cushioned by the thick blankets still tight around my body.

Sakura barely hesitated for a moment, and I expected that. She never seemed to be swayed when she wanted something… It was rare to see a female hunter so headstrong and confident. But then again… I had rarely seen more than a couple of female hunters. And the ones that I knew… Well, their use is to produce children. Not to be hunters. But it didn't seem to be the life that Sakura wanted, or maybe she didn't know that such a life even existed?

**"So… I'll start with an easy one. How old are you?"** she chirped, using whatever she could to brighten the mood just a little more. I didn't look up from the dark liquid in the cup and stared at my own reflection, staring at my cold dark eyes…

**"…19. How old are you."** It didn't really sound like a question… It was more of a mutter than anything else, really. But it was still a question, and Sakura leapt at the chance to answer the moment that I spoke just a few words.

**"17, but I'll be 18 in a couple weeks."** I could practically feel her grin burn into me and a soft sweet chuckle came from the younger huntress. I forced myself not to look up, knowing that I would only find myself trapped in her gaze once again. Her… hypnotic gaze.

…It was no wonder that Toga saw so much in her. She was… very lovely…

My hands tightened on the mug almost instantly, and I banished the thought. There were my emotions again… She was trying so hard to pry them out while she had no idea just how much danger she would be in if she allowed more than a decade of trapped emotions to come tumbling out. I subconsciously let my mouth drop just slightly and stared at the reflection of the sharpened teeth, each curved painfully, almost as if he had been intended to be a vampire rather than a hunter. My lips were cut and raked on the inside and slightly on the outside, leaving me with unrelenting pain… But that was something that I had grown use to as well.

**"…What happened to your teeth?"**

I should have known this was coming. The more personal questions. It took only one filler question to get to it. **"…Training happened,"** I muttered, then almost immediately wished that I hadn't said that. She didn't… know about my training. She didn't know the endless hours I was forced to spend working on my body, turning it into my master's weapon.

And… she didn't know why the bruises continued to blossom, even if they weren't from Kaien-sensei's training.

Sakura gasped just softly and her words fumbled to ask another question but immediately silenced herself. She knew that it was still my turn… Pathetic as it was, I was surprised that she would hold her own word. My gaze lifted up from the dark liquid and looked back at the young girl in front of me. What to ask her…

But then my eyes caught something… Her arm. Her left arm was pulled just slightly behind herself, turned slightly as if to keep me from seeing something. I felt a frown crease over my normal scowl and I reached over to grasp her arm. She tensed just slightly, but didn't move away. I grasped her wrist, careful not to put too much pressure on her weaker body and turned her arm.

Four soft scars lined across her arm. They were thin and nearly faded with age, but they were still there. They just barely marked her skin… **"…These aren't from training, where are these from."**

Sakura almost immediately pulled her arm from my grip, surprisingly enough without much difficulty. Her arm turned just slightly and she pulled it behind her back to make sure that I wouldn't see it again. **"…Y-you don't remember, so it doesn't matter,"** she muttered.

Vaguely surprised, I pulled my gaze up to look at her face to find that she had already looked away from me. Her other hand was tightening on the rag as she briskly wiped away another piece of dirt from my wound, causing the pain to flare relentlessly. **"Watch it…"** I growled at her, but she didn't give a fiery response like she normally did. She fell into her own silence as she stared down at my wounded stomach, her blond hair just slightly brushed over her eyes.

What didn't I remember? They couldn't have been from me… If I had clawed her during training, they wouldn't have been able to scar so quickly.

But then that nagging thought poked into my head once again. Kindergarten. I calculated each thought carefully, making sure that I didn't lose a single detail, but what detail would I miss? She talked to me, she gave me a pudding cup, then she reached out to touch my bruises… Then I remembered in a jolt. That scratch… Had I cut her that deep?

I wanted to ask her, but I knew it also wasn't my turn. How ridiculous must I look, having to wait my turn to ask her a question… **"…Sorry 'bout that."** I mumbled in an attempt to fix the silence and my gaze tugged back to the hot chocolate in my hands.

**"…S'alright. …Where did you get that scar."**

A scar for a scar… But I doubted that she would have even half as many scars as I would. Her fingertip delicately lined across a deep scar across my side in an attempt to point it out before she resumed her work of cleaning out the stomach wound. The rag had already begun to soak red, but it didn't seem to bother her as much. Maybe she was becoming numb to the blood, too.

_'…That one was from my Sensei when he dug a knife in my side and left me to take care of my own wound with nothing.'_

**"…Training,"** I muttered, knowing that there really… wasn't much else that I could tell her. My ass would be grass faster than the words could come from my lips. No one must know what he was doing… But it would only take a matter of time for Sakura to put the pieces together. That… the training had yet to end.

Trying to divert away from the subject of his own training, I tried to change the course of the questions. **"…How long had you been in that school class… thing.,"** I asked in quietness. I had been pulled out of that class after no more than a few days, once my Senseis had realized that me being around other children was… not the right thing to do.

Even when they had followed me closely throughout the day, being around every corner, always keeping an eye on their 'elite student', they realized that the task of sliding me into a normal child's school was going to take far too much time.

After all, why actually help me be around others when they could just beat the crap out of me and call it training.

**"All 13 years. Me and Toga just graduated about six months ago. We were the only ones to make it…"** The softest smile slipped on the huntress's face at the thought, as if she was pleased for her own accomplishments. I had no idea just what in the world she did in those classes… Was it some kind of training? There had been relatively no training in the week that I had been in that class.

There had been… outdoor times. They would receive food the same time every day, whether or not they had completed their duties. They would use pencils with different colors, some seemingly made out of wax, to make pointless scribbles… It had no point. Not compared to real training.

**"…Hey, did you even hear me?"** A jab in my side pulled me back from that one week and snapped me back to reality. I pulled my gaze back up to Sakura's face from where it had been staring off into nothing and saw her looking back at me in curiosity. **"I said, did you transfer or something? Or did training take up your time and you were homeschooled?"**

I blinked. How would she know? But then again… Their ways weren't always kept secret. I gave a light shrug in response. **"Training, I didn't… really have much 'homeschooling.'"** All I was taught was reading and writing, and maybe a few basics to keep me going if I was ever in a pinch such as medicines. But the rest was training. Bloody, tormented training…

This conversation went on for a while. The questions were mostly meaningless and were easy to answer, and most started to be directed to the scars. I asked her about some points of her life. Her mother was still alive, surprisingly… And I answered that I didn't even know if mine were alive or not. She was just as surprised with that as I was to hear that she had a living parent.

Elites lived a much different life compared to normal hunters. A parent was to release their child to the association, to have their child be raised by mentors and trainers to strengthen them for the road ahead.

The conversation wavered back and forth between school, life, and pointless other questions. But with every question that she asked and that I answered, she was… shifting herself closer. By the time that I finally told her that nearly every scar on my body was from training, she was laying beside me after finishing in tending my wound.

She was close… Almost uncomfortably close. I could feel the slight heat of her body beside mine, to the point that I shed off the blankets from my body so I wouldn't overheat.

I would look to her every now and then to make sure that she hadn't fallen asleep, only to see that she had her eyes closed. Assuming that she really was asleep, I would pull the blanket over her in an attempt to make her more comfortable, only for her to mumble another question. She refused to sleep… Not until she gets her fill of questions.

[b]"…Kyoko? Can I ask you just a couple more?"

"Mhm…"

"…You're still in training, aren't you. That's why you keep getting the bruises and the cuts…"

"…Sakura…"/b

Uncertainty plagued me as I tried to think of a way to weasel my way out of this question, but Sakura had also answered every question that I had given to her. From her father's disappearance/death to more personal questions, such as if Toga was to be her mate. She had seemed to flinch on that one, but then quietly answered 'no'. So… it was only fair if I answered her remaining questions, even if it would have to be as vague as possible.

_'…Yes, I'm still in training. Yes, I sneak out once you two are asleep… No, Kaien doesn't know… I hope… No, I don't know when the training will end… I don't know if it'll ever end.'_

'Yes, it's painful…'

'Yes, it's dangerous...'

'…yes, it's horrible…'

'…yes, I want it to stop…'

**"…Yeah."**

"Okay… Your turn."

…That was it. That's all she wanted to know? She wasn't going to ask him thousands of questions about his training? But as I saw the yawn soon cross over the young huntress's face, I soon realized that she might not even remember this in the morning. She shifted just slightly closer to my body, her head sinking into the pillow that both of us were leaned against.

**"My turn… okay…"** I said with a soft sigh, already wishing to just end this stupid game before I could let something slip. Every answer that I gave was perfectly calculated, designed to give no real answers other than a slight fact or two. Yet Sakura seemed to be much more… trusting with her answers. It was strange. It was also dangerous for a hunter to be so willing to give away their private life.

**"…Alright, I got one,"** I decided and gazed back down to the huntress. Her amethyst eyes were already opened and looked back up at me, waiting for my question. **"…What do you think of me?"** The smallest smirked tugged on my face, vague curiosity invading me almost instantly. It was an innocent question enough… …Which was why it confused me instantly when a crimson blushed spread across her cheeks and she ducked her head into the pillow to mask it.

**"K-Kyoko, that's a silly question…!"** she giggled uneasily and her hand playfully pushed against my shoulder, but I was too confused to push back. What was wrong with her now…? I blinked once as I watched her giggle a few times before she pulled her face back up to meet mine.

**"You're a baka, that's what I think of you. A silly baka…"**

…A baka. That didn't tell me anything.

But as I opened my lips to ask her more, she was quickly coming up with her own questions. **"Okay, okay, my turn. Uhh… What do you think of me?"** she chirped instantly, a smile tugging over her lips. Seriously… What was with the sudden 'feeling' questions? But I guess I was the one that asked it first… It was only fair.

A soft sigh escaped me as I leaned my shoulders further back into the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, as if trying to decide my answer. She contained herself to the silence, trying to not disturb my thoughts. **"…Well, you're a skilled hunter, even if it's still raw. And you… are attractive as far as female hunters go, though I haven't seen many,"** I muttered, careful to not let an ounce of emotion into my words.

I could practically feel the disappointment brimming beside me from Sakura. Eventually a quiet '…oh' slipped from her lips and she soon fell silent. That must not have been the answer she was hoping for. But I wasn't about to change it. It was about what I felt… She hunted… well for her age. She looked better than most huntresses. But she was also… gentle. She… cared.

**"…can we stop soon? I want to sleep… It's been a long day…"** the tired sigh came from beside me before the sound of Sakura shifting on the bed. The body heat that was beside me felt a little farther away… She probably rolled away to the other side of the bed. I hadn't meant to hurt her, but maybe it was for the best. She was forgetting that I was dangerous. Those scars on her arm should be hint enough… But maybe it needed to be prodded every now and then.

**"Last couple of questions, then…"** I agreed quietly. I wanted to go back to sleep just as eagerly as it seemed like she did but she still seemed to want a few short questions left in the game… So I'll give her what she wants. This time.

_'My turn…'_ I thought quietly before my eyes scanned across the room. Then I saw the empty bed just across from Sakura's. …Yagari was still gone? He should have been back hours ago… But then I remembered. I had scented him in the infirmary and heard his voice… Even if it was only once or twice… But I had also heard Sakura's hysterics. Something had upset her… Had something happened?

**"…Sakura, what… happened to Yagari. Was he injured?"** I asked carefully, not knowing if I was sitting on a time-bomb about to explode in a heartbeat or if I was safe to ask this question. For all I knew, she could have been scolding Yagari for going out at all… Everything could easily be fine. The Level E would have more than likely ran off with the presence of hunters being near.

But strangely enough, Sakura suddenly… flinched. I looked to her smaller form and saw that she had shoved her face into the pillow to hide her expression. Something must be wrong… Terribly wrong. But he wasn't dead. I had heard his voice several times and he sounded fine…

**"…I don't want to talk about it, Kyoko…"** she whimpered into her pillow, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric. What could have been so wrong that Sakura was this upset over it? Then again, she was upset when he had first broken his leg. Yagari must have broken his arm or something, or had lacerations from the Level E's claws… Sakura tended to… overreact to injuries.

My lips parted almost instantly to ask her why she won't want to talk about, probably to be tagged with numerous guesses over what did happen, but I eventually closed my lips. If she didn't want to say, she didn't want to say… I couldn't force her. So I just simply watched her as she pulled her emotions together, even as she trembled from time to time. I didn't dare touch her, knowing that she might only slap my hand away for attempting to help. So I waited for her to pull herself together.

**"…K-Kyoko… Last question…? …Why did you save me?"** Sakura eventually spoke, her voice barely lifted from a whisper. I could hear the pain cracking around her voice, even as she desperately attempted to hide it.

…Well that answer was simple. It was because-

…Because…

My mouth felt dry as I realized that I… didn't have a logical answer. I could have easily died protecting a huntress that could be killed by the same predator in a week. A hunter, or more specifically, an elite, never gave their life for another. They worked for themselves… and no one else. If a partner dies, it was their own fault. They weren't strong enough.

So why…

Why did I help Sakura? Why did I offer my own body as a shield to protect her? It had all happened so fast, I hadn't realized what I was doing until it was far too late for me to stop myself…

**"…I… don't know…"** I murmured softly, and a crack of confusion crossed over my normally lifeless cobalt eyes. Sakura's gaze lifted just slightly from the pillow, her gentle amethysts slightly brimmed with tears but she tried to blink them away. Hesitantly, I met her eyes and gave her my honest answer again.

**"…I don't know."**

"…That's not an answer, Kyoko. There has to be reason."

There had to be a reason… I knew that as well as anyone else. There were reasons for everything. To why my parents shipped me off to strangers to raise me into a fighting machine. To why my mentors beat me endlessly. To why I had been forced to endure the torment.

But to why I protected her…

I had nothing.

In a desperate attempt to defend myself, my eyes hardened and the single fleck of emotion was snapped away. **"You didn't answer me either, Sakura. What happened to Yagari?"** I snapped at her, surprised by the sudden anger in my voice. What did I have to defend myself for? Why was I this upset over a stupid question?

**"I don't want to tell you, okay? You wouldn't care anyway!"**

"And why wouldn't I care, Sakura?"

"Because you don't care about **_anyone!_****"**

Before she could have given me a moment to respond, Sakura gave me a hard glare and ripped the sheets over her body and disappeared underneath the layers of fabric. It was there that I heard the soft, choked crying begin just underneath the sheets as her shield fell apart before me…

A soft pain tugged at my heartstrings, one that I couldn't chase away instantly like I could everything else. She was crying in front of me… But she was still right. I didn't care about anyone. I shouldn't. I had no reason to.

…So why did it hurt to see her in pain.

I didn't know how long she sobbed underneath the blankets, away from my viewing. I stayed on the bed, just barely beside her any longer, as I waited for the sound to stop and for her to settle down. Eventually she did… But by the silence, I came to the conclusion that she was actually asleep.

Delicately, I reached out and grasped the edges of the blanket and pulled it back gingerly. I soon exposed her face to make sure that the thick blankets didn't hinder her breathing. Wet tears still clung to her cheeks, her cheeks a blossomed cherry from crying. I don't know why I did… but I reached out and gently wiped away the tears with my thumb, wiping off each in turn. The pain didn't ease in my heart until after I had brushed all the tears away.

**"…I wish I could tell you what you want to know, Sakura, but I… just don't know,"** I murmured, to no one in particular seeing as how Sakura was still deeply asleep. I watched her sleeping face, strangely peaceful even though her cheeks were still red from her sobs. A tear or two would slide down her cheeks from time to time, to be quickly wiped away by my own hand.

Who were the tears for… For herself? …For Yagari?

…or for me?

…Either way, I couldn't let her hurt any longer. And one of the few things I could do was make sure that she wouldn't be punished for taking care of me… So as quietly as I could, careful not to stir her awake, I slid myself out of the bed and eventually got up to my feet. My numbness in my body was now just a distant memory, even though pain did flare in my stomach and a soft crimson red stain began to sink into the white bandages. It would have to be ignored for now…

I casted another look back to Sakura, watching her asleep on the bed, while wondering if I would see her again. If Kaien decides to punish me for my actions, then… more than likely not. But she had Yagari to protect her now. She didn't need me to take the blows.

With a forced shrug to try to shake away the thoughts, I stepped towards the door, careful not to let my steps cause a creaking in the floorboards beneath my feet, opened the door to let a little light pool in, before I slid out just as quietly as I had approached the door, with just a soft click of the door closing being the only sound to my escape.


	17. Chapter 16

**"What do you mean you ****_knew?!_****"**

I couldn't help but snarl at Kaien as my hands slammed down onto his desk, my eyes sharpened to slits. He couldn't have known!

**"Kyoko, settle down. How could I have not noticed that you snuck out every night for extra training? I'm not an idiot,"** Kaien snapped back at me, his amber eyes narrowed just as tight as mine. He was the only one who seemed to have an even more terrifying glare than I did… But I wouldn't back down easily.

**"Furthermore, the fact that you have been wearing sweats throughout your entire workout is more than a hint that you have something to hide. And now I can see why,"** he muttered as he leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest. His glare was frigid enough to chill down his entire office in a heartbeat, but I refused to be wavered.

**"And frankly, I wasn't surprised for a moment that you would be insane enough to go after that Level E while critically injured and nearly lost your life,"** he ended, his voice losing a little bit of its edge but his gaze did not. Leave it to Kaien to disapprove of him… This was the same hunter that thought it was just fine to go after purebloods whenever he wished. He had only killed one, but he claimed it was self-defense… And he held that claim to this very day.

**"So what the hell is with the claim that you'll expel anyone that leaves the training grounds? An empty threat just to scare Sakura and Yagari?"** I retorted immediately as my claws sank down into the wooden desk. Kaien glared down at my hands but then returned the glare back to my face just the same. He wasn't happy with me, but I didn't care. He had threatened expulsion.

A long, drawn out sigh came from Kaien and he raised his hand and pinched the brim of his nose to try to ease a little of his own tension, as if it would make a difference. Kaien always seemed to be angry… A controlled anger, maybe, but angry all the same. Maybe it was because of the old legend that he hadn't aged in years. He certainly looked no different.

But that made no difference now… I had to know just why Kaien had been doing the things he's done, and why he had never attempted to stop me from leaving at all. **"If I didn't claim that and either Sakura or Toga would realize your disappearance, they would grow suspicious and attempt to follow you off the grounds. If that would have happened, they would be easy prey for any vampire,"** he muttered through his teeth, his fingers still pinching the brim.

**"Then why didn't you just stop me from leaving at all? If you claim you knew where I was going, then you could have stopped me!"** It would have been better if Kaien had stopped him from going to training, and maybe he could have ended it once and for all… But why didn't he.

The amber eyes opened, a dark emotion flashing across his calm yet cold eyes as if a dark memory had flooded into him. He pulled his hand down from his face and rested it back down at his side but the ambers never left his face. **"…You're forgetting that I am an elite as well. I have undergone the training the same as you have. And we both know that there is no way of leaving training so simply unless you want the consequences."**

My hands tightened down into the wood of the desk, the claws starting to cut little gorges in the grooves. I remembered the threat of punishment… It had simply been that if it was attempted, that you would be expelled from the Hunter's Association or even executed. It was as if they expected their soldiers to simply flee and use their skills against the other hunters… But the pompous leaders of the association were all idiots.

Unfortunately… they were also the ones that commanded the training of elites. They trained myself and other young elites and they would continue training until they either perished or were hardened enough to kill a vampire without the blink of an eye. I had thought I had reached that state years ago… Yet they continued to train me harder and harder, to the point that my bones would crack apart under the strain.

**"If I were to be the one taking over your training through this, it still wouldn't be enough to get the association off our backs,"** he added as he leaned himself back in his chair. His sharpened eyes didn't hold any lies… and I already knew that too well. There were few ways to get out of training before the association deems a hunter ready to pursue the vampires. A reason as trivial as just wanting it to end just wasn't good enough…

My hands slowly pried themselves free of the desk, even though it was hard to prick every claw out of its hold. What was I going to do… If I continued through training, Sakura would worry and she would ask questions, questions that I might not be able to answer. An elite was not supposed to talk about their own training… If they did, the association could have their name ruined from the knowledge that such cruel measures was being acted on elites as young as four.

Average hunters would never know what really happens to an elite, or that the highest ranked of the association were the ones to train the young hunters. And for what… to make sure that they live a couple of years longer to produce more of the next generation?

I growled sharply as I realized my defeat. Training would only get harder, and even if it didn't kill me, it would drive me too close to the edge of death for comfort. **"…damn it,"** I muttered and took a step back from Kaien's desk. The elite hunter stared up at me before he let out a soft grumble and pulled himself up to his feet.

**"…Kyoko, you may not be in training for much longer. There are ways to end training so you can begin your hunting without the threat against your life for ending training earlier."** Kaien crossed his arms over his chest as his wise yet shudderingly cold amber eyes scorched down on me. I didn't flinch as I met the gaze, already knowing that my piercing cobalts could do the same.

I waited for a few moments, expecting him to speak… But then he didn't, as if he expected me to beg for it. But his expression didn't give any dark humor. They were just serious and there was even the slightest bit of dread lingering in his gaze… **"…Well, what is it?"** I said without giving myself a second thought to what the request might be. Whatever it was, it couldn't be horrid. Anything to make the training from the association stop…

I still didn't even understand why Kaien had dragged me into this training, too. Maybe it was out of the faint hope that the association would let me go, and that he could slowly start to gather the other elites into his own less excruciating training. Kaien had undergone the training, himself… Maybe he even trained other elites. He would know as much as anyone that it had to stop…

Kaien had already seen the lives extinguished through the dangerous training, and I had as well. Out of five different hunters I had trained with off and on, I had seen only two survive to their teenage years, and I hadn't seen a sight of them in years. Probably dead as well…

After taking his time with his answer, Kaien cleared his throat and looked down on his desk. He shuffled a few papers from the association around on the desk before he picked up a single piece of paper and held it out to me. I saw the stamp of the Hunter's Association on the corner… But as I looked over it, I realized that it wasn't an order to hunt a vampire.

I read over the words carefully and slowly felt the color begin to drain from my face…

**"…If you do this, you will be released instantly. You will become a full hunter. You will never have to go back to training… But you cannot back out of this."**

I stared down at the words blankly, my head already beginning to spin. I turned over the page, as if expecting the words explaining that this was all a joke to be on the other side. But it was just a blank side on the back… No lie. **"…So soon?"** I murmured softly in my shock and my cobalts drifted back up to Kaien. A soft nod was his first response.

**"If you do not do this now, you do know that it will happen sooner or later… And if you do it now, chances are that you would have better options or maybe a choice,"** he added to prod me, but the darkness remained on his face… He probably didn't want me to do it… But… if it would get me out of training…

I stared back down at the paper and read over the words, skimming through some parts before it came to the bottom of the paper, the dotted line pleading for my name to be written onto it.

**"…Get me a damn pen,"** I muttered gruffly as I set the paper down onto the desk and held out my hand for a pen, all while not tearing my eyes from the line. But nothing was placed into my hand… Not yet.

**"You may regret this sooner than you think, Kyoko. Are you willing to write away this right just to get out of training earlier?"** I heard Kaien ask me, but only irritation flooded into me. I didn't need to think about it… I didn't care anyway. There was no other option for me, especially since she already…

**"Just give me the pen, it won't matter anyway if it'll happen anyway…"** I muttered, sharper this time. My eyes tore from the paper and glared up at Kaien, but I wondered just why this agreement was agitating me so much. It was going to happen whether I wanted it or not.

It happened to all elite hunters once they reached around the age I was at.

**"But you could have a choice if you find someone the association will approve of."**

"Damn it, Cross, I don't care, just give me the pen!"

I was done with the delays. I had worked hard to finally be able to hunt. They might not release me for another year if it was by their own wants and needs, but this… This will release me as soon as the arrangements are made.

The amber eyes blinked, and for a moment, there was surprise in my gaze from my sudden harshness. But that fell away in a moment, and a disturbing seriousness took its place. **"…Have it your way. I tried to warn you,"** Kaien muttered with a scowl as he picked up a pen from on top of his desk without any more hesitation. His voice was dripping with a dark, black poison, but he did nothing to sting me more with his words.

The pen soon was placed down in my hand and I didn't hesitate as I drew the tip down to the dotted line and wrote those two little words.

_Kyoko Kiryuu_

And with my name, I signed away my right to a choice, but I didn't care. It wouldn't matter to me at any time, and especially not when I finally get to escape the training.


	18. Chapter 17

_-Sakura-_

…Kyoko didn't come back after I had woken up. The other half of the bed had already grown cold by the time I woke, leaving me in a couple of wrinkled sheets and some of Kyoko's blood still dripped onto the dark blankets. I didn't expect him to be there… But when I had gone to check if he was in the infirmary, all I saw was Toga, asleep.

He needed his sleep. It was going to be a long road of recovery for him… The doctors had already told him that he needed to stay in bed with as little motion as possible for the first week, then it might be possible for him to come back to the bedroom to rest. But after about a week, he still wasn't allowed to be released… An inflammation had begun to build up around the wound, and the fluid wasn't draining properly.

They said it wasn't dangerous… But it didn't sound healthy, either. All they said was that he needed to stay down and allow the doctors to continue changing through the bandages. Apparently Toga had been fickle about the doctors touching the wound, once again scoffing that he was perfectly fine…

At least that gave me a reason to bonk him for being an idiot.

So that was why I was sitting at his bedside for the third time today, trying not to nod off. Kaien had been kind enough to give me the first five days off to stay beside him to make sure he was alright, but now he was trying to get me back into training. I didn't know if it was because he was getting impatient with my inability to train like he wished or if he was trying to distract me…

My hand wrapped around Toga's remaining hand, my thumb slowly stroking up and down against his palm as I stared at his sleeping face. They had to give him an oxygen mask after the first day because the oxygen supply had dwindled severely from the loss of blood… He still wore it, but the doctors were hopeful to remove it by the end of the day.

Much to my annoyance, another yawn slipped from my lips and I forced myself to rest my chin onto the railing along the bed. It had been a very draining few days… But at least I had been there for Toga when he needed me, especially when it came to changing the bandages. When he would be low on pain medications because he thought he could 'tough out the pain', and the bandages would start to be delicately peeled away to replace them, it… was more than obvious to how much pain Toga had been in.

It had broken my heart to watch him clamping his teeth together, refusing to cry out in pain even though he nearly bit a chunk of his own cheek off from the inside. I would just hold his hand and try to keep him calm while the doctors would work as fast as they could to try to keep the pain from becoming harsher than it needed to be.

I… tried not to look at the wound once it would be exposed. I knew that the moment I did, I would break down again. And I had done enough crying for the both of us.

But the fresh white bandages that were wrapped around the stump would hopefully not be changed for the rest of the night, allowing both me and Toga a chance to rest. Toga would take any opportunity like this to either talk to me or sleep… Mostly sleep. He would chuckle and say that Kaien wasn't going to let him sleep for days from his laziness in being injured… I would quietly chuckle along with him while hiding the pain in my heart, knowing he might never be able to return to training.

I continued to stroke his hand softly through his sleep and watched his still-bandaged chest rise and fall with his breath, now calm and not laborious as it had been the second day after his surgery. It was one of the few comforts I had through this… to know that at least he was alive.

**"Sakura?"** the familiar calm voice came in through the doorway just as the door opened just faintly. Dread dropped in my chest as I looked up and spotted Kaien Cross at the doorway, his calm eyes meeting mine. The roughness had actually dropped ever since Toga had been injured… Surprisingly, he also didn't snap at me for staying with Toga throughout all of this.

**"I know, I know… training…"** I heaved a soft sigh, knowing that my fate was set the moment that he laid eyes on me. This was one of the few reasons that he came to the infirmary unless it was to speak with the doctors about how Toga was recovering, and once to tell them that Kyoko would not be back at the infirmary but his wounds were already being tended to. It confused me… but I didn't ask questions. I had to worry about Toga, especially when it was obvious that Kyoko thought nothing of me.

The amber eyes flicked down to Toga for a moment, observing his sleeping form and then looking to the monitors and the drips as if to check that they were properly secured. God forbid that something that could be prevented happened to his student… Unless of course it was breaking their leg farther by yanking him to his feet. Or throwing a weaker student against an elite. Or… sending out a man with a broken leg to hunt a vampire in the middle of a blizzard.

Just to name a few.

I turned my gaze over to Toga quietly and got back up to my feet, though my hand was still gently grasping his limp yet warm hand. Delicately, I stooped down and brushed a little of his thick, black hair away from his face. For just a moment… I remembered the little boy I would play with in kindergarten, or more drag around with me while he tried to shy away. But now he wasn't the shy boy… He was a man, even if he was suffering.

Trying to fight the pain from latching onto me again, I brushed the hair back and eventually set his hand down by his side again. **"I'll be back, Toga…"** I murmured to him, even though I expected no answer. I gave his hand a gentle pat before I forced myself to turn away and walked back to the door where Kaien was waiting for me.

**"…You're in a better mood than yesterday,"** he murmured to me just as I passed through the doorway and he shut the door behind me. I just barely held back a flinch, remembering my outburst and then the eventual sobs that came after he told me to train that day. All that damn stress had just… overflowed. He had been kind enough to lead me to my room so I could try to pull myself together and didn't speak to me about training for the rest of the day.

**"…T-they thought they found infection in his shoulder, that's all. And… the swelling I guess kinda scared me…"** I answered but in a soft voice that I doubt he could hear well. I was nearly surprised by how fast I had panicked when I saw the swelling in the stub… But after I had dragged in three doctors who had been taking a break to come back and look, they sighed and assured me that it was completely natural and that it wasn't as inflamed as the day before.

**"…It happens,"** Kaien sighed as he stepped down the hall in nearly complete silence. He must know how stressed I had become if he was willing to speak to me with something other than training, but I knew that this calm banter would not last for long. I gazed back towards the room as we walked down the hall, watching a doctor as he quietly slipped into Toga's room to check on him again.

A soft tap on my shoulder reminded me that I couldn't get myself distracted. He had promised me before that training would only be an hour instead of the normal four or five hours, enough to get me warmed up again. I would be his only student for today, which both filled me with a little bit of pleasure but also dread, knowing that I would have his full attention…

Eventually we both reached the training hall and he pushed the shoji sliding door in to allow both of us inside. The training room had been organized and cleaned with the break I had, giving a little bit of relief. It might have been a rather strange way of Kaien to try to perk me up, but at least it helped a little… Knowing that I'm not going to trip on a barbell or a weight was at least a little comforting.

**"Now then,"** Kaien began as he slid the shoji closed behind us. I looked back and met the calm amber eyes, slightly relieved that I didn't find that strange, dark smirk on his face. Usually whenever he said that, it was just before he was going to announce another strange and dangerous training schedule… One of those things had been the knife throwing and dodging. That… was more than slightly dangerous.

Kaien walked quietly towards the three punching bags and stopped himself in front of the closest one, one that Kyoko usually beat away at. I was surprised that this one was still standing, when usually Kyoko would have shredded it within thirty minutes. **"It's been some time since we've worked on the bag, I want to see how you are progressing,"** Kaien told me as he pressed his hands against the back of the bag to hold it still and to feel the impact of my fists against the bag.

Now was my chance to prove that I was a better than he expected me to be… Especially after Toga's accident, and after Kyoko had to protect me. A soft smirk crossed my face as I approached the bag, pulling up my hands and observing over the bag as if it was my opponent. Hoping to catch Kaien off guard, I smashed my fist into the bag, but it barely even shifted against my punch from Kaien holding it nearly perfectly still.

I blinked once but I refused to let it stop me as I pounded my fist into the bag again, cutting it into the side this time. It moved a little more this time, but not by much… Frustrated, I punched deeper into the bag, trying to take out my frustrations onto the bag.

Kaien would mutter instructions to me as I punched, telling me to not keep my arms so tight to my sides or to turn my hand more to prevent breaking or compounding my wrist. I tried to listen… But as I punched, my thoughts were beginning to turn elsewhere. To… when Toga and I had been trying to work ourselves to the bone, me through the punching bag and him through the tire. About that first stolen kiss…

And then when it came to when Toga broke his leg. How I had abandoned the bag to try to come to his aid. …Then my thoughts turn to the fight that broke out between me and Kyoko at Kaien's command, trying to overpower his muscular body, the closeness between our bodies as we exchanged blows…

**"Sakura, pay attention!"** Kaien's snap pulled me back to reality and I realized that I had no longer been punching the bag and had instead been staring at the thick red bag in front of me. My eyes snapped up to his face and saw the amber eyes narrowed a little darkly… Great, now was I in trouble? I couldn't help but flinch slightly before I forced myself to continue, punching my fist back into the bag.

But as I heard the soft groan of irritation from Kaien, I realized that I wasn't even paying attention to my punches, instead just striking the bag blindly. **"Sakura, hold on, stop. We're doing something else,"** he growled softly and quickly reached out, grasping onto my wrists to force my punches from beating into the bag and possibly injuring myself in the process.

**"B-but Sensei…"** I stuttered and looked back up at Kaien, but he was already shaking his head. He pulled my wrists as he abandoned the bag and pulled me instead to the boxing ring that was set up in the far corner of the room. Now it was probably going to be combat training… He was going to make me concentrate and try not to think about them if it was the last thing he ever did.

**"I want you to just try to spend five minutes not thinking about either of them. I want you to concentrate, Sakura,"** he muttered to me just as he approached the ring, releasing my wrists to pull apart the ropes and allow me inside the ring. Trying not to utter the whine about not wanting to get my face accidentally smashed in, I reluctantly pulled myself in through the ropes and stepped into the ring.

Kaien didn't hesitate to follow me and allowed the ropes to jolt back to their original place before he reached down to his side and grasped his sword. At first, I was afraid that he was going to leave me weaponless and he would attack me with the blade, but once I saw him place the sword just outside the ring, I realized that he was just making sure that I didn't accidentally get myself cut.

At least that was some relief to me… Kaien soon crossed the ring and stood on the far side, already starting to slip on the boxing braces that were set at each corner. I looked back at my own corner and saw my own smaller braces there waiting for me. I also saw the two larger braces, one pair on each side of mine… Kyoko and Toga's. They wouldn't be fighting with me… One not until he came back from whatever he hell he was doing, and the other… possibly never.

Forcing my thoughts to leave me, I soon picked up the braces and strapped them onto my hands delicately, making sure that each were on properly before I looked up… and saw Kaien already running towards me, his fist raised to strike me.

With a startled yelp I jumped out of the way, scurrying myself a few feet to give myself distance. The amber eyes flashed back up to my face, his face casted in seriousness before the eyes narrowed. Without missing a step, Kaien rushed up and swung out his fist, preparing to pound me straight into the shoulder. I managed to slide out just before the punch could land onto my body.

**"You have to do more than just dodge, Sakura…"** Kaien grunted as I slipped from his grasp once again, but even though I wish he was wrong, I knew that he was about as right as he could get. If I could only dodge the blows, I would have to wait until he grew tired to win the fight. But with Kaien… it would take an eternity.

Biting down on my bottom lip, I managed to slip back as Kaien tried to punch into my side before I took the opportunity and struck out, managing to punch into his back. I landed a punch… That in itself was something that had taken months to accomplish before, and I managed to do it on the first try!

But my excitement easily got the best of me as Kaien whirled around, his fist lashing out and striking me straight back into my back as well. I knew he was softening the blows… I could feel his fist nearly stop before it would hit into me, but it would probably leave a bruise all the same. **"Concentrate, damn it…"** he hissed into my ear as he lashed out another punch, this time landing into my side.

Trying to pull myself together, I attempted to fight my way back. We constantly exchanged blows over a couple of minutes of fighting, ones that felt like an eternity. I could already feel how out of shape I had become after less than a week of being without training, to the point that I was already out of breath… Kaien, on the other hand, hadn't even broken a sweat.

Kaien managed to strike a blow into my shoulder that left more than a soft sting but I fought through the pain anyway. Just as I rushed out to send a blow into his chest, though… I heard the door slide its way open. Instantly, my thoughts pulled out of the fight and towards the door and hope rushed into my chest. They were allowing Toga to come watch? They were letting him out of bed?

With the ridiculous thought in my mind, I abandoned my punch and let my arms drop down to my sides, obviously assuming that Kaien would do the same as I looked back to see just who was coming in.

Then pain exploded into my chest as Kaien sent a staggering punch straight into my ribs, refusing to soften the blow this time. It surprisingly sent me straight to the ring's floor in a matter of seconds as all the air in my lungs rushed out from the strong blow. The punch's impact throbbed in my lungs, making them ache as I struggled to pull another breath into my lungs to catch my breath.

**"…This is why you don't need distractions, Sakura,"** I heard Kaien's mutter unsympathetically sound above me. I tried to push out a soft growl of annoyance and probably some pain to my mentor, but I couldn't even pull a breath into my lungs enough to mutter it out. I had the breath knocked out of me before, quite often actually… But never this bad and never this sudden.

I knew that I needed to try to keep calm and take slow breaths, but I couldn't take in any at all…! Did I collapse a lung? Did I break a lung off? Were my lungs not even attached anymore?!

**"…Sakura, tilt your head back and try to take a slow, deep breath. You're trying too hard,"**

A hand reached down in front of me just as someone stepped in front of my collapsed form. The voice wasn't Kaien's… He probably had already abandoned me to lay on the boxing ring floor until I die from suffocation. But it wasn't Toga's voice either…

Doing as he said, though, I tried to calm down my efforts and just barely managed to pull a shuddering breath into my lungs. Sweet relief filled my aching lungs as I let it escape slowly, finally able to feel just slightly better. **"…T-thanks…"** I wheezed as I lifted my hand and wrapped it around the stranger's hand and glanced back up to his face.

Kyoko… What was he doing here?

The dark cobalts that looked down at me were just as hard and as unfeeling as they always were, but there was something darker in the depths… His hand tightened just slightly around mine before he pulled me up to my feet without another moment of hesitation or allowing me to continue to catch my breath.

**"If you take your eyes off of your opponent for a second…"** Kyoko began, his eyes tightening as he was about to start another of 'you'll get your ass killed' lectures… But strangely the slight growl in his words faltered and he sighed, shaking his head slightly **"…never mind,"** he muttered and he pulled out his hand from my grip almost instantly.

I could only blink as the older hunter turned away from me and slid himself in between the ropes of the ring, jumping down from the platform, and headed back towards the door from where he had already slipped through just moments ago. **"…H-hey, wait! K-Kyoko!"** I wheezed out a little louder this time, my voice mixing with a couple of coughs as I squeezed through the ropes and jumped down to follow him.

Now what was wrong with him? Had something happened to him while he had been away for the past week? I wearily followed him to the door, still attempting to catch my breath, before I felt a hand grasp onto my shoulder from behind. **"Sakura, you need to focus on training again, and I can see that it won't happen until after everyone recovers from this incident. There will be no training until I say so, and I expect you to at least attempt to refocus,"** Kaien spoke behind me, his voice just… slightly tight.

I looked back instantly to my mentor and saw that his amber eyes were not on me but that they instead were following Kyoko as he started to slide out the shoji. Was there something else wrong? Something that Kaien knew about that I didn't? **"B-but what about Kyo-"**

"I want you to go to either the infirmary or your room. Retire for the night, Sakura,"[/b] Kaien interrupted me without any hesitation. The crisp amber eyes turned down onto me for just a moment before he released my shoulder with a soft nudge for me to leave the training hall. [b]"Kyoko, I'd like to speak to you," Kaien called to the retreating hunter, making him freeze in his steps.

This didn't seem like something I was allowed to listen to… It was probably why Kaien had so 'indiscreetly' told me to just go to my room to leave them in peace to talk. …Well fine, they could talk. But it wasn't going to be so important that I couldn't hear. I should be able to know just what was going on with Kyoko just like Kaien… After all, Kyoko at least talked to me.

…Sometimes.

With a soft huff, I walked to the door and slid myself out of the crack that Kyoko had already made when he opened up the shoji. I turned around and shut the door… But I refused to leave. I just wanted to hear what was going on, and why Kyoko had acted strangely and why he was gone… I pressed my ear against the think door and waited for the speaking to begin.

**"…Has everything been arranged, Kyoko?"**

"Just finished it this morning…"

"Everything has been decided? When will it be held?"

"After this training is completed. But everything is… ready. There will be a meeting in a few weeks to make sure everything is going to plan."

"…I hope you are sure of what you are doing, Kiryuu. There is no backing out of this once you have signed the agreement."

"…Doesn't matter if I do or not. It's done."

My curiosity spiked as I listened to the conversation as intensely as I could. A meeting? Was there something wrong with Kyoko? Maybe he was in trouble with the Association… Had they killed the wrong vampire? A soft frown creased over my face as I listened but then the voices started to fade… They were going to another room to speak.

_'Damn it…'_ I scorned mentally as I pulled my ear from the door, but now I knew that there was something up. And now I was going to make sure that I find out just what it is… If it's the last thing I do.

This might be interesting…


	19. Chapter 18

**"...So he left... But now he's back? And he still doesn't know what happened?"**

**"...Yep."**

**"...Weird..."**

I stared down at the bowl of noodles in my lap, forcing myself from sighing again. I had barely touched my supper... Maybe it was because of the sickness in my stomach I had felt all week. Kyoko had barely spoken to me since we had that... talk back in my bedroom. I wasn't sure if I should be completely relieved or upset that he just refused to speak.

Picking up my chopsticks, I gave the noodles a quiet stir. The clicking in the bowl ahead of me told me that Toga was already digging into the noodles I had brought him. Yesterday he had told me that the food they were giving him wasn't much better than hospital food... It was supposed to keep his body 'healthy' to fight off any infections that could take over him.

Stealing my gaze up, my amethyst eyes eventually turned up to Toga. He had the bowl perched delicately onto his lap as he sat crosslegged on top of the blankets, unwilling to let himself simply lay down in bed any longer. The young wounded hunter was focused on his bowl as he used his remaining hand to pick up the noodles with the sticks... But every time he tried to pick them up, his clumsy hand would slip and the noodles would pour back into the bowl.

I could read the frustration that crossed his face without any hesitation... With his dominant hand now gone, Toga had to relearn... almost everything. Picking something up was difficult. Sometimes it was almost impossible. Now he had been consumed with practicing everything all over again...

A frustrated grunt came from my friend as he tried, and failed, once again to pick up the noodles, only to watch as they slid through the wooden sticks. Why couldn't they just give him a fork... _'He has to learn how to do this right. If he doesn't learn now, he might never learn.'_ That's what the nurses would always tell me when I would beg for them to help make it easier for him... The man lost an arm... Couldn't they at least help him now?

**"..."** I said nothing as Toga stared down at his chopsticks. Eventually, I forced myself to move forward as I reached out and delicately grasped the sticks in Toga's hands... The large hand stiffened once, and I could feel the ice blue gaze dig down into my body, but I didn't flinch. He needs help... **"...Just hold it like this, kinda like the opposite of before, okay?"** I murmured as I fixed his hand, placing them slightly awkwardly but correctly onto the two wooden sticks. Of all the things he had to learn, it was to eat with chopsticks...

Toga said nothing even as I pulled my hand away. He would be grumpy with me today... I could tell from the moment that I had come in and seen he had already awaken. He was just in one of his moods again... With barely allowed to leave the bed, even though it had been two weeks from the time he had been injured, his will was beginning to fade. I would just try to sit with him as long as I can to soothe him. Sometimes it worked... Sometimes it didn't.

That would be when I would just... talk. I would talk about training, about what Kaien had to say. I would rarely talk about Kyoko... but I just couldn't stop myself from starting to speak. And then everything started pouring out... It started with the fact that Kyoko refused to talk. Then it came to Kaien's secret conversations with Kyoko, the one that I 'overheard' back in the training room. Soon it started to spiral over where it seemed like there was something wrong with Kyoko...

Only when I had realized that Toga wasn't even caring enough to answer me anymore did I realize that he probably didn't want to hear about it. After all... Kyoko didn't lose an arm. Kyoko killed the vampire, not Toga. Kyoko was training along beside me, or at least mostly... Not Toga.

The wooden sticks clicked against the side of the bowl as Toga stirred the noodles in the porcelain bowl, staring down into the noodles. Daring myself to look up at him, I caught the look of the ice blue eyes... They were clouded and lost. He was thinking about something, probably getting depressed once again. As I was sliding my eyes away from his face, not wanting to look at the despair on his face when he would probably fail again, my gaze inevitably caught onto the stub...

The bandages had been pulled off a couple days ago. The nurses thought that he had healed enough to take them away, letting the wound breathe... Though I could still see the black stitching. And now it exposed the fact that the vain attempts of telling myself that this was all a lie were just that...

Vain.

Fake.

They wouldn't change a thing... I stared at the stub as it appeared to rotate just slightly, rotating with Toga's futile attempts to move the arm he no longer had... He told me he wasn't in any pain, but I knew that he was lying. Why wouldn't he lie... He just didn't want to worry me.

Desperate to change the subject and maybe to bring Toga from his darkening thoughts, I opened my mouth again to speak. **"...Toga, do you think we can take a walk? Will they le-"**

**"Sakura, Kaien wishes to speak with you."**

I hadn't even heard the door open when the doctor's voice came into my ear. Jolted, I whirled around to see that the doctor was simply standing at the doorway, waiting for me. Oh... How long had I been here? I couldn't be late for training... My amethyst eyes flicked up to the clock as a rock settled down in my stomach, knowing that the punishment for being late to classes was... rather cruel. But the rock was stripped away once I realized that we still had an hour. So why did he wish to see me now?

**"...Just go, I'll see you later,"** Toga's slightly chilled grumble came to me almost immediately, as if he could read my thoughts of training. It must be horrible... Horrible to know that the clock was ticking by, and that urge to go to training had to be stifled away each and every day. All while not knowing if he would ever train again.

**"Um, okay... Take care?"** I replied, attempting to sound cheerful for my friend. But as I pulled my gaze back to Toga, I saw that his head was ducked down. The thick raven hair slightly covered over his ice blues, leaving me with not having a single way to tell what he was thinking... Figures. He always was trying to hide things from me. For a moment, I wondered why we couldn't go back to the way things were... When we were... Friends. Before all of this happened.

But I only needed to take a moment to think back to the reason that he was injured like this.

Because I didn't want our relationship to go to the next level and get in the way of training. Because I wanted to stay as friends. ...That's why he was in that damn hospital bed. That's why he only had one arm, the other probably rotting in the trash or whatever they did with it.

Without receiving an answer from my wounded friend, I quietly started to shift myself off of the bed, all while doing my best to hide my hurt. Toga was hurting and he refused to say it to me... But I wondered what was hurting more. The fact that I refused to let my relationship with Toga to move onward or... that it hurt so much knowing that Kyoko was quick to abandon me for no reason.

Wait, why was I thinking about _him_...

Shaking the thought from my mind, I pushed myself off the bed in a heartbeat. Knowing that if I managed to catch Toga's glance that I wouldn't leave the room for another couple of hours, I forced myself not to look back and instead stepped out of the door, all while throwing a few last words back to him. **"You can have the noodles if you want, so they don't get cold."**

A gruff mutter behind me was all that I heard as a reply from Toga, overtaken by the sound of the doctor asking just how he was feeling. Needing to get myself going, I forced myself to dart down the hall. It was eerily silent tonight... But then again, it was always silent. The silence consumed all the hallways... Or at least it did when Toga wasn't beside me. A familiar ache caught onto my heart as I looked to the space beside me, as if expecting for Toga to be walking right beside me. But no, he was back at the room, letting the doctors look at his stitching... Letting them run salt water through the stitching...

Fighting away the pain as best as I could, I pushed myself to go faster through the hallway. I needed to focus... Kaien had told me that I needed to focus now more than ever. My training was more than halfway through. I had a chance to go through with this... I would become a hunter soon once my training would be complete.

And it was that thought that carried my feet all the way to Kaien Cross's room. It was the thought that made me push the door open without any hesitation, searching inside for my Sensei. **"Kaien-sensei? You wanted to see me?"** I chirped as I forced a brightness into my words that I haven't felt in days...

But a voice right beside me distracted me. **"What the hell are you so cheerful about..."** the grunt came, the familiarity making the familiar irritation flood into me. It almost surprised me that hearing _his _voice could anger me so much so quickly, much like it did before... And as I whipped my head to the side, I caught the sight of the silver hair that cascaded down over the piercingly dark cobalt eyes. The sharpened gaze was on me, tainted with the darkness... But he seemed... Agitated.

A lot more agitated than usual... His entire posture was rigid, his back pressed hard against the wall. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, leaving his hands clenched into the opposite arms. Even his sharpened teeth were slightly exposed as they pulled themselves against the sharpness, letting more blood to slide from the cuts... The glint in his eyes was much more dangerous and deadly than ever before. Then the cobalt eyes flicked to the side, staring back ahead, as if telling me to follow his gaze.

Just as I turned my head, though... another scent washed over me.

It smelled... dark. Luminous. Powerful. It poured down my throat like acid, making it hurt with its fury. It scorched its slow burn down into my body slowly, and it felt painful to take another breath...

Because in front of me stood a woman, standing across from Kaien's desk. A hood was pulled over her body, the coat she was wearing covering her all the way down to her calves. It was where the scent came from... A familiar scent but much thicker and darker than I could have ever imagined before. She was standing before Kaien who was on the other side of the desk, seated patiently as if he had been waiting for my arrival to speak at all.

**"Ah, Sakura. You decided to join us,"** Kaien spoke softly as he began to pull himself up from his seat. The chair creaked ever so slightly as he brought himself up to his feet but he gave no mind to it as his amber eyes turned to me, and then to Kyoko. Silent in his steps, the fangless vampire stepped his way in front of the desk and turned, facing the female in front of us. As if giving an unseen and unheard command, the woman hesitated in front of us and then carefully turned her head.

Slender hands reached up and grasped the dark brown hood that was perched on her head, carefully pulling it back... Delicate curly hair laid underneath, framing a heart-shaped face. The hair was dark brown, almost to the hint of chocolate... And it nearly mirrored the round, luminous chocolate eyes the hair partially concealed. The chocolate was obscured only by the faintest glimmer of garnet or ruby, I couldn't tell. Her skin appeared... flawless. Her intelligent and wise eyes locked with mine immediately as she gazed on me, unease touching her but was nearly taken away by the gentleness and kindness that lingered instead.

This woman was... beautiful. More beautiful than a hunter could ever appear. There were no scars, no marks, no signs of training... But then I took in another breath, and I felt the dark scent thicken with the movement of her hood, releasing more of the scent. And that was when it all clicked together...

Vampire.

**"Who the hell is she," **Kyoko's voice sounded choked behind me, as if the overwhelming scent of the obviously powerful vampire was painful to him. I could understand why... The scent itself made my blood scream for me to grab a weapon, to attack her... And for an elite, the ones bred to hunt and kill vampires, to be forced to stand merely feet away from a vampire and not allowed to attack... must be excruciating.

But I couldn't break my gaze from the woman's eyes, the ones that locked me with... vague curiosity. As if she was... trying to figure me out with the intelligence far beyond the years that she appeared to hold.

Kaien's voice almost sounded to be far away, but it managed to snap me back with just a few key words...

**"...She will be staying with us today. This is Juuri Kuran, a pureblood."**


	20. Chapter 19

...A Kuran. After all these years, I thought that they had simply been a legend... nothing more. But a Kuran was standing in front of me. A _Kuran!_ They were the leaders of all the vampires, the king and queen of the vampire realm and the queen was standing before me!

An uneasy silence had consumed the room from the announcement, obviously starting to spook the pureblood before me. Juuri's eyes widened as they flashed back to our Sensei, as if she was wishing for him to hush and not speak her name aloud... But it was already done. The silence was so... awkward that I just couldn't bear to let it reign any longer...

I knew that it wasn't supposed to be like this, for a hunter to approach a pureblood without the threat of attack. But she seemed... Nervous. Scared even. To be around hunters must be strange for her, much like for me to be around a pureblood. But she wasn't a beast. She wasn't a Level E preparing to attack. She was a stable vampire, one with obvious intelligence. Plus, she was against three hunters... It wasn't as if they stood much of a chance against them anyway, right?

So after putting a faint smile on my face as the dazzling chocolatey eyes met mine again, I took a quiet step forward towards her. **"...Miss Juuri-sama. It's a pleasure to-"** But my kind words were shattered within a moment as a snarl ripped through Kyoko's jaws. His weight slammed into my side before I could do anything to stop him, pushing me aside with no hesitation. In a whirl of movement, I saw the hunter reach down by his side, reaching for the sword that was always by his side...

Oh no. He couldn't...! He was going to try to attack Juuri, the pureblood! What if he hurt her? What if this started war?

Even as I tried to reach out to grab Kyoko, to pull him back, he was far too quick... But Kaien was moving as well. His own hand reached for his sword to draw it out and smash it against Kyoko's, but what if he didn't make it...

But I didn't... have to really worry about that. Because the ruby eyes flashed within a moment, a sudden fire lighting in them as the woman became nothing more than a blur. A hand flew up, grabbing the sword just as it swung to slash down into her body, grabbing it with the sword barely touching her skin. In a moment, she swung her arm down, throwing the sword down with Kyoko still tightly attached to it. The young hunter was thrown relentlessly to the floor, leaving him stunned and more than slightly confused... But so was I.

I felt my mouth drop as Kyoko was sprawled out on the floor, trying to gain back his senses even as the fire remained deep in his eyes. Pushing my gaze back up to Juuri, I saw that she had already jumped back and away from Kyoko, making sure that he couldn't strike again... But a playful glint was starting to enter her eyes. This was just... a game to her. As if this wasn't even a challenge.

A giggle came from the pureblood's lips as she watched Kyoko pull himself up to sit up, pressing her delicate hand to her lips in an attempt to hide it. **"...Kaien, you said you have taught them to behave..."** she giggled softly as her happy eyes looked up to our Sensei. Kaien didn't seem to be surprised with her movements... Instead, a slight smirk was on his face. But the usual darkness wasn't there... It was... strange. But before I could ask him anything, he simply turned himself to Kyoko and roughly grabbed onto his arm, helping him back to his feet.

**"Let that be a lesson to you, Kyoko... You are not ready to hunt a pureblood, nor will you ever be. Now relax."** he muttered to his student just as Kyoko gave a quick glare back to Juuri. Well... it was his own damn fault that he had tried to attack the pureblood. He had nothing to be grumpy about.

Knowing that this would be Kaien's opportunity to either teach Kyoko a lesson or scold him half to death, I took the opportunity to take the step back towards Juuri. She didn't seem to be wary of me... And the delicate fingertips shifted down from her lips as her eyes met mine once again. **"That was... pretty cool,"  
**I couldn't help but chuckle as I approached her, as if to make sure that I didn't appear threatening to her. I saw what she did to Kyoko within a heartbeat, and he was much stronger than me... She could probably break me in half. She was, after all, a pureblood... But I hadn't suspected that they could be this powerful and possibly deadly.

Another giggle came from Juuri's lips as she took a step closer to me as well, her hands falling down to her sides and delicately grasping the edges of the coat, pulling them shut over her body. **"You must be... Sakura, correct? Kaien has told me about his current students..." **she chirped to me as the flawless eyes met mine again, nearly smothering me with the grace held within. Purebloods were beautiful creatures... It was much different from the stories the hunters have been frightened with in their toddler beds.

Those stories that purebloods feasted on the flesh of hunters, that when the sun falls, they creep out of their dungeons to destroy all they see... It was strange that those stories could be so... Wrong. At least with this pureblood. A slight nod was my response, the smile still on my face. There were so many questions I could ask her... Why she was here could be a start. But of course, I wouldn't have the chance.

**"Sakura,"** Kaien's order came to my ears, nearly making my flinch. He just had to interrupt with everything I was doing just for his own will... With a faint sigh, I looked back and saw that Kaien was still staring daggers into my back, the darkness resuming in his amber eyes. Well that didn't last long... Knowing it was best to listen to him, while hoping that I could continue talking with Juuri if I had the chance, I took the couple steps back to Kaien. He was already making sure that he was in between Kyoko and Juuri, seeing as how the elite still appeared very agitated... But he was going to have to get use to it just like I was.

Once I was close enough to speak to him without him having to raise his voice, his eyes locked with mine. The calmness had overtaken him while the darkness was still present but there was a faint level of... urgency. **"Juuri will be here throughout the day. As a pureblood, it is important that she receives protection from the other hunters. If another hunter arrives here and attempts to kill her, it will start a war we might not be able to win at this point," **he ordered me without restraint. A war that we might not win... Was that all that was going on? Why risk the pureblood being in this place in the first place?

**"...It is _very_ important that she is** **unharmed." **A flash of emotion came through the older hunter's eyes, something... almost hidden away. And it was quickly disguised in a moment, leaving nothing to see any longer.

Confused over the sudden change, I found that there was really nothing I could say to figure out what it was... It was Kaien's own feelings, and he would probably never tell me anyway. Figures, the only time that anything interesting happens, I couldn't even hear about it... With a faint sigh, I looked over Kaien's shoulder to the edgy hunter that stood behind him. Kyoko's cobalt eyes were burning holes into Juuri, but I knew she wouldn't care much for it... Kyoko was only cranky that he had gotten himself flipped without much of a fight from himself.

**"...I don't trust her. Be careful," **was his only gruff words that spoke from his lips and he soon shoved his gaze to the wall. I could only blink at his tense words. Since when did he care... Even before, he didn't seem to care a sliver, especially when we had been... talking. After that night.

**"...I don't need to be careful," **I just muttered back and turned my way back to the pureblood, but a slight fleck of pain started in my chest as I turned myself away from him. Ah, why should I care. He was just an ass who thought he knew everything even when he didn't. As far as I knew, he still didn't know about Toga's condition... But I wondered just what had gotten up his ass and made him so damn cranky today.

Refusing to look back at the hunter any longer even as Kaien started to utter a few words to him, hopefully to make him clean up his act a bit, I took a few quiet steps back to Juuri and gave her another soft smile. **"I can show you around first... Then we can go to my room to rest," **I told the pureblood before me, and she couldn't help but smile back, even though I could see relief in her gaze. I doubted that she appreciated the hostility in the room from Kyoko... And Kaien was having none of it either.

Without another word, other than a soft command to follow me, I pushed open the door and led the young pureblood from the room. And there we went... With no Kyoko following us to slow us down, it would just be me and Juuri... And as we started to step down the hall, I realized something. It had... really been a long time since I was able to talk to a girl, not just as friends or even at all. I had been so attached to Toga and I never really allowed myself to range any farther...

So I let myself talk. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous. And this Juuri was... very friendly. The hunters had always said that purebloods were all insane and they always were trying to destroy the hunters, but this pureblood was different. She was light and she laughed. She wanted to talk to me, even when I was supposed to be her enemy... **"You're very friendly for a hunter... It's rare to see that," **she chirped at me as our conversation started with talking about training to diverging off a path onto being a hunter, then to their own personalities. Conversations seemed to go that way with girls... It was something I missed.

**"Well you're very nice for a vampire," **I snickered back and gave her a light smile, slightly surprised to see her smile just as lightly back. But as we continued to walk, I noticed something... She would always hold her coat around herself tightly, as if she was attempting to hide something. Was there something wrong? She didn't seem like she was in pain...

Though she didn't seem to want to let my focus drift to her coat as she shifted it just a little tighter around herself. **"Your friend doesn't seem to think so, I'm afraid..."** she giggled to me, her slender hand moving to her lips as if she was attempting to stifle back another laugh. Of course, Kyoko... His attack didn't surprise me in the slightest and it didn't seem to surprise her as well.

**"Kyoko's always like that... He thinks all vampires are awful and he thinks he's tough enough to destroy any pureblood that crosses him. But once you get use to him, he's nicer..." **The smile only widened on Juuri's face as she looked ahead as we continued down the long stretch of the hallway.

She seemed to be thinking about something, though... And as we drifted down the hallway, bantering back and forth about this and that, she suddenly spoke. **"There's... three of you, right? Kaien was talking to me about his students... He told me about you and the Kiryuu child but... Not on the third."** Just how much had Kaien talked to her? Since when would Kaien tell anything about that to someone else, especially a vampire? But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering me... It was to the fact that she wanted to see... Toga. What would she do if she saw a hunter barely able to leave the bed, still wounded?

Would a vampire... prey on a helpless hunter? Much like a hunter would prey on an injured vampire, like prey...

Unease touched me and I couldn't help but look away... I didn't want her to see Toga. I didn't want her to see just how hurt he was... But Juuri had already stepped past me without another word, heading deeper down the hall and I soon realized what lingered at the end of the hall, the same place I had been visiting for the past couple of weeks. The infirmary, where Toga still laid helpless.

My body stiffened up as she darted ahead of me and I was unable to read her expression. What was she going to do to Toga? My Toga? Would she try to finish him off? **"J-Juuri, wait!"** I tried to call to her, but her form only blurred as she began to pick up speed... And even as I started to break into a run to catch her, I only saw her blur throw open the door and rush straight inside...

No, she can't hurt Toga! I have to protect him no matter what! Even if she was a pureblood, even if I knew that I wouldn't win, I couldn't just let Toga sit there like injured prey! Feeling my heart ram itself hard against my ribs, I rushed to the door and prayed that she hadn't sank her fangs into his neck to drain him dry yet... I threw back the slightly open door...

And saw Juuri delicately look over the stub that remained of Toga's arm, a soft concern in her eyes as her delicate fingertips traveled along the inflamed nub.

Her eyes were soft as she looked over it but also faintly curious... She had probably never seen an injury like this. Purebloods recovered from this, unlike us hunters. **"Sweetie, it looks like you got a little injured..."** she cooed like a dove as she sat herself down by his bedside, not even giving Toga the option to move away from discomfort.

My fears melted into embarrassment. Just because she was a vampire didn't mean that she was going to kill him... But as I looked to Toga, he seemed to be very confused. He could only blink up at Juuri as she tended to his injury, bleary confusion crossing his face as if he had just been awoken from his nap. **"...Sakura... Who's she?" ** he mumbled with a slight yawn. He must be tired if he hadn't picked up her very strong vampire scent yet... Or maybe the medication was still messing with his head.

Trying to hide from Juuri that I had been more than convinced that she would be making a snack out of my friend, I stepped cautiously over to Toga's other side and sat myself down on the bed right beside him, watching his blurring eyes look back at me. **"...Um, this is a friend of Toga's. This is Juuri," **I said softly to him, and by the look on his face, I could already tell that he had no idea who she was... But that might be for the best.

Another yawn came from his lips as he sank himself back into the pillow, unfortunately moving the stub from the young pureblood's hands. **"Sweetie, hold still, I'll help..." **she said with a sigh and even a slight pout on her full lips as she moved her hands back down and touched the stub. Toga didn't seem to mind... But lately he seemed to just be too drugged out to care. And seeing the IV that had been freshly planted in his arm told me that he was at the first stages of being knocked out cold by the medications...

The doctors always did that for when he was trying to get out of bed. So he must have been getting troublesome again. With a soft sigh, I moved my hand and started to slide my fingertips through his thick black hair in an attempt to help lull him to sleep... Almost immediately, his eyelids droop before he let them fall close, relaxing beneath my touch... I almost forgot that Juuri was still in the room as I continued to slide my hand through his black hair, feeling the very faint curls through the thick hair.

The sound of Juuri clearing her throat pulled me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality as I looked up. Her slender hands had already pulled away from my friend's injury, and I noticed that the inflammation in the stump had gone down... She had healed it? Then again, purebloods were powerful. They didn't have a drop of human blood in their veins, just pure... vampire. It was why the hunters weren't attempting to destroy them with every weapon that they had, knowing that it might... just not work.

Juuri's chocolatey eyes were locked on my body and she looked... curious. Again? She seemed to be surveying me...

But she didn't seem to mind for too long as she pushed herself off of the bed, but strangely carefully. She pressed her hand against her back, as if it was sore and gave a soft sigh... **"Sakura, may we go somewhere that I can sit or rest for a little? I've been walking all day..." **she asked with a faint sigh and rubbed her lower back with her hand.

Curious but not about to deny her a chance to rest, I nodded and shifted off of the bed, but not until I had pulled the blankets up to Toga's shoulders. He needed to rest... Shifting his arm by his side to keep the IV needle from being tugged, I soon stepped away from his bed and to the door. **"We can stay in my room... Kyoko is probably with Kaien-sensei, so we should have some privacy. You can rest on my bed if you'd like." **Another sigh slipped from Juuri's lips but it was this time one of relief and another smile touched her face in gratitude.

So we were walking again, and my nerves were finally beginning to settle... As much as they could, anyway. Her scent was still making my head spin and refused to ease away. But I couldn't complain... I probably smelled like death to her. Either way, I led her back down the hall and to the bedroom that me, Toga and Kyoko shared. I barely had a chance to flick on the light before Juuri shifted from my side and came to the closest bed, thankfully being my own. Without restraint she plopped herself down onto her back with an 'oof', and her curly hair splayed out onto the blankets beneath her.

Purebloods... really were beautiful. They were without a single flaw, and I was jealous that such a woman could be so beautiful... and have so many people respect her. It would be like being the president of the Association, but times... a thousand. It wouldn't even come close to the respect that vampires would have to their leaders... Careful not to disturb her in case she needed to sleep, I took the soft steps and walked to her bedside, even as she seemed to get nervous for me to get so close while she was in a vulnerable position... I didn't have a weapon on me, I couldn't hurt her.

**"So what happened anyway? You're a little... far from home, I think," **I couldn't help but ask her. I had never come across a pureblood's scent anywhere close to this place... So why would she be here?

With another faint sigh from her full lips, her chocolate colored eyes opened and looked back to me quietly. **"My carriage broke down on the way home... I was visiting an old friend, which was why I was so far from home. Of course it was the one time that Haruka was at home... He's my husband." **Another smile colored her face as she rested her head back against my pillows, her elegant hair pooling beneath her head. Her beautiful colored eyes stared to the ceiling for a few moments as if thinking...

**"...I probably should have stayed by the carriage but it was just so hot... I wasn't use to traveling during the day and I just needed to find a place to stay... And I remembered that Kaien was staying here."** Another smile, but this one... was different. It wasn't purely happy, it was almost a little sad... The eyes glistened with faint emotions that swirled within the chocolate before they closed to hide them from my view. **"Haruka will throw a fit if he knows I came here in this condition but I don't care... I just was too tired..."**

Her condition? I couldn't help but blink and let the worry swirl over me... Was she sick? Would that explain her tiredness? **"If you're not feeling well, I... can take you back to the infirmary. They should be able to help." **I wasn't prepared for the laugh to slip from her lips, sweet and friendly like the coo of a dove.

The laugh carried for a little longer before the friendly smile spread over her face again and she looked back to me, her eyes sparkling... **"Sweetie, it'll be months before they can help me... I'm not sick, I'm pregnant."**

...Oh.

The pureblood was... pregnant. So that was why she was so tired and her back had been hurting... I could only blink, dumbfounded before my gaze naturally slipped down to her stomach, even though I knew I would deserve a smack or two from the action. Sure enough, even though slightly hidden from the folds of her jacket that she had been nervously tucking and shifting around her stomach, there was a bump... Probably five, six months pregnant, not a time for her to be walking around in the heat.

**"...Oh," **I murmured stupidly. But how was I supposed to react to know that the pureblood was pregnant? Bringing more vampires into the world... But... Why would it be any different for if a hunter was pregnant. It was still a baby... And... Well, I liked the thought of a baby, whether it would be mine or someone else's. Eventually the smile crossed my lips as I looked back at Juuri. **"Congratulations! That's wonderful... Do you know the gender yet?" **I said with a slight giggle, letting my warm feelings drip into the words.

Even she seemed to be vaguely surprised by my reaction but her smile only grew wider and she couldn't help but drop her hand to her stomach. **"It's a boy, we found out for sure last week... Haruka is excited, he's always wanted a son, and this is our first baby,**" she said with a smile, her hand beginning to run soft circles across her stomach.

I couldn't help but feel a little jealous of her... Even as we began to talk again, about her plans for the baby, about if they thought of any names or if they were planning to have more after him. She said they wanted to name him Kaname... Apparently after their ancestor. She even offered me to touch her stomach when he started to shift and kick, as if complaining to his mother for the scent of the hunters being around him... But it was as I felt the soft movements against the palm of my hand that my jealousy grew, and even a little sadness.

Hunters... were never sure if they would live to see parenthood. Or even see the birth of their child after they had been conceived. Hell, I could die even while carrying a baby... And there was always the curse of the hunters hanging over our heads. Looming over us. Always an option... That what would be a blessing to some parents would be death to the two lives within the mother. There was the chance for one to survive... but unheard of for both to live. It just... wasn't possible...

**"...Is the man that was in the infirmary your mate?"**

Well that sure took me out of my thoughts. I couldn't help but stiffen, my eyes widening as I looked back at the woman resting before me. Her head was slightly tilted as if she was in thought... **"...U-uh, no, Toga isn't my mate..." **I answered with a nervous chuckle, but that familiar lump formed in my throat and in the pit of my stomach. He wasn't my mate... Even though he wished to become my mate more than anything in this world, I still couldn't imagine...

**"You seem to be very fond of him though... How you stroked his hair in the infirmary... You seem to care a lot about him..."**

"**Y-yeah, but...****"** I stuttered and tore my gaze away. How could I just... tell her that I didn't... think he was the one for me.

I could feel the intelligent chocolate eyes looking at me, trying to figure out just what I was thinking... It was making me nervous... **"...H-he's just my friend. He's always been my friend and I... don't want to lose that. He's kinda... the only person that's helped me stay together all these years. ...And I just don't think he's my mate," **I sighed and felt another soft nudge brush against my hand. To have a life inside her must be the most amazing feeling in the world... But to know that it was a life made from the one that she loved...

I might never experience that. Because if I didn't choose soon, I would have a mate chosen for me. And soon, Toga would have to deal with the same. I knew it would be the death of Toga...

**"...Okay. What about Kyoko?"**

...Now she really had to be pulling my leg. But I didn't understand the rush of heat that filled my cheeks, brightening them bright red at the thought. Me? Kyoko? Together? Was she nuts? But I was surprised that I didn't deny it right away... So I stuttered through one. **"H-he hates me! And he's an ass to me anyway, he tries to beat me up when we train together!"** I said with a rather forced laugh to try to make it sound like it was completely true.

Another question followed, something that I should have expected but not by what it had said... **"He tried to protect you from me. From a scary vampire that could have eaten you. I know people who have hated others... but that doesn't look like someone that hates you. Far from it..."**

I couldn't help but blink again, some of the warmth being sucked away from his cheeks. He... tried to protect me from her.

I remembered him shoving me away in a moment, knocking me aside as if to keep me from getting attacked... and I instantly remembered our first hunting mission. Where he had put himself in a life and death situation and could have easily died to protect me. I hadn't wanted to think of that day for weeks... But now the thoughts were coming back. Kyoko had been protecting me... He must... care for me...

**"...I saw how he looked at you before he tried to save you. He was afraid that you would get hurt..."**

...That couldn't be right...

I fell into silence and soon Juuri had as well... The only movement from me was when my hand would shift from time to time at the rhythm of the nuzzles, kicks and shifts. She couldn't be right... He couldn't...

Kyoko couldn't... love me.

The soft breathing that came to my ears pulled me out of my thoughts as I looked back to Juuri and saw that her eyes had closed and she had fallen asleep... So I delicately took my hand from her stomach and replaced it with a light blanket to keep her from getting too cold. But the thought continued to run through my head... Was Kyoko protecting me because he cared about me? And that was the only way he knew how to show it?

This was still the man that never knew how to play... There was just something not right with him... Something that wasn't normal, something that meant he couldn't function the same way me and Toga were...

**"Sakura?" **Kaien's voice shattered my thoughts and nearly made me jump off of the bed. I swirled my head around and saw the two men that stood at the doorway... Kaien stood on one side, the light pouring through the open doorway but it shadowed the other man beside him...

But I could see his vague silhouette. He was rather tall, nearly taller than Kaien... He had very dark hair, dark brown and nearly black. It was a little long, almost down to his shoulders and just slightly curly but not to the point of Juuri's...

**"Haruka has come to pick Juuri-sama up..." **Kaien spoke, but his amber eyes weren't dug down into me... They stared at the woman on the bed, watching as her breath slipped in and out of her soft lips... So that was Haruka. The man didn't seem to hesitate long to leave Kaien's side as he stepped into the room and came up to the other side of the bed, as if trying to keep from coming in any contact with me, the hunter.

I could see more of his features now... His eyes were more ruby than chocolatey as they looked down at Juuri but they looked so... alike. Siblings, even. Did purebloods do that with each other? Disgusting... A shiver couldn't help but coarse through me as I looked away from the Kuran as he delicately lifted up his pregnant wife from the bed, all without saying a single word to me... Why should he. He wasn't Juuri, he wasn't gentle like her, I could tell that much. Instead he turned away and began to walk to the doorway, turned and started to go down the hall...

Silently I pushed myself up from my bed and followed the purebloods but only to the doorway to stand beside Kaien. Maybe we were going to continue training... I almost expected Kaien to move away from me and walk back down the hallway. But instead he... stood there. Watching the two as they walked down the hall...

Slightly confused, I looked up to my Sensei's face... and I caught...

Pain.

It tugged at his eyes and it surrounded a much deeper emotion, an emotion as close to warmth as I could ever see it happen in his eyes. And those eyes followed Haruka and Juuri as they turned the corner... disappearing from his sight. His eyes were starting to lose focus, as if memory upon memory were starting to pull him in...

**"...Sensei?"** I murmured, more than slightly shocked to see the emotion welling up in front of my sensei before me. It didn't seem to snap him out right away... But eventually he blinked, his eyes focusing again and he soon looked away from me. His eyes were shaded by the dark blond hair that slid down past his shoulders, forcing me to not be able to catch another glimpse of the emotions again...

**"...No training tonight. Get some rest."** That was all he murmured as he started to turn away, his shoulders sagging as he began to step back down the hall... His head was slightly bowed, something that... I had never seen before in him. And what had surprised me even more was when the hunter paused in his steps, turned just slightly back to me and uttered a surprising words...

**"...I think we all need some rest. I'll organize a carriage here tomorrow for you and Kyoko to separately go back home while Toga stays here to recover. We're taking two weeks off from training to recover and regain ourselves again from this incident."**

* * *

_-Kaien-_

...I had circled my desk so many times that I had lost count, just... staring at the floor. The thoughts were filling my head again, all of that... all of...

I tried to shake the thoughts again as I forced myself to sit into my chair, feeling the cushions already worn down with years of use squish down beneath me. I leaned back and let my feet prop themselves up on the edge of the desk, nearly kicking off a few papers. What was wrong with me... I thought I had pushed through all of these years ago...

But seeing Sakura, Kyoko and Toga... And now her...

My hand slammed down onto the desk with such force that it broke the wood beneath my hand. Damn it, another thing I would have to fix up. But it wouldn't matter... Just cover it up with more papers. It was the same thing I had been doing for years... Just cover it up. Hide it. Hide the memories of the woman that had saved me years ago... Saved me from a Level E that had tried to end me. She had destroyed that vampire so fast... it was breath taking. And her beauty... Beauty untainted by the blood that specked her cheek and covered her delicate hand.

She has asked me if I was alright, her voice delicate like a dove's coo, gentle like a summer breeze brushing softly against my body to ease me from the heat... Soothing me... It had been the one time that I had ever looked at a woman the way I looked at her. She had stolen from me something that I could never take back... Something that she could never return to me with her own. Because she was married to a man that she loved. Not me.

I was a hunter that she saved once. It didn't matter to her for my life. Not even when I had... bumped into her again. And again. And... again...

**"...Damn it..."** I cursed softly beneath my breath as I realized that my emotions were getting away from me again. I couldn't just let this get the best of me... I needed to keep going. I had a life now. One for myself, no one else. I was training the next wave of hunters, ones that would match their power. I would overthrow them all... End the vampire race forever...

End everything forever...

Reaching down to the drawers that rested beneath the top of my desk, I reached blindly and grabbed onto the handle, attending to pull it open to find the paperwork I had been meaning to fill out weeks ago... From the corner of my eye, I watched my hand as it pulled open the handle... Only to realize far too late that it wasn't the right drawer. And as I opened it... I found myself staring at a slip of paper, reading the writing that had been scribbled down years ago... When she had left me alone in that hospital bed, recovering from another Level E attack that had taken me off guard. When I had... tried to protect her.

_'I'll be back, Kaien._

_-Juuri'_

But she never came back... The woman that had stolen the fangless vampire's heart... and never returned it with her own. Never realized what she had stolen from him..._  
_

_**"...Juuri..."**_


End file.
